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COFtfRlGHT DEPOSIT. 



JOHN MARK; 



OR, 



The Making of a Saint. 



Rev. JAMES D. HUNTER, D.D. 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION 
BY 

Rev. Floyd W. Tomkins, D.D. 



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AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 

150 Nassau Street 
New York 



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THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS. 




Two Copies Received 




SEP 12 1905 


| Copyright Entry 
a CLASS CL XXc. No 
| COPY B. 



Copyright, 1903, 
By American Tract Society. 



BURR PRINTING HOUSE, 
NEW YORK. 



TO MY 
WIFE AND DAUGHTER. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface . vii 

Introduction ix 

Rev. Floyd W. Tomkins, D.D., 

Rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity, 

Philadelphia, Pa. 

Periods 
I. Character Receiving Its Bent — Heredity 

and Environment — Modern Evangelism . i 

II. Taking up Definite Work— Leaving Home 

— Young People and the Church . . .25 

III. Deserting the Post of Duty — Reasons Why 

Young People Fail — The Grace of Persever- 
ance 45 

IV. Reformation of Character — Disappointed 

Hopes — Church Dissensions — Merit System 69 

V. Inconspicuous Service — Emerging from Ob- 
scurity — Literary Monument — Final Verdict 85 

Scripture References to John Mark . . .108 

Index . . . , „ , n . . * 109 



PREFACE 

The reader is forewarned not to expect in 
these pages an ordinary biography of John 
Mark, nor a formal treatise on the making of 
a saint. The author has attempted to blend the 
biographical and the didactical. The aim has 
been to make John Mark live before us and 
instruct by his example at every turn. 

The basis of these chapters was an address 
delivered by the author to young people and 
others. In its present form, the address has 
been recast and expanded. 

The career of John Mark naturally falls into 
five distinct periods. These are severally 
marked by the five divisions of the book. 

The author trusts that the reader may have, 
at least, a tithe of the pleasure and profit, in 
perusing these pages, that he had in following 
the career of John Mark in their preparation. 

The Author. 



INTRODUCTION 

In these days when the Bible is brought to 
the dissecting table, and rude hands are treat- 
ing it as a common rather than as an inspired 
book, it is well to bring to young Christians the 
result of a reverent study to prove how much 
truth is contained even in a few selected pas- 
sages and isolated texts. 

It is well, also, to lead young Bible students 
to "search the Scriptures" in such a way as to 
bring the threads of truth together and weave 
them into a pattern of beauty and guidance. 
God's Word has been given for study, not 
merely for mechanical reading, and he who rev- 
erently handles its pages is bound to find riches 
of truth undreamed of by the ordinary Chris- 
tian. 

But above all, it is most wise in these modern 
days to bring the Bible characters into such 
light as shall show them to have been men of 
like experiences and characteristics with our- 



x Introduction 

selves. They are examples for us, and they 
need to be translated, as it were, into our mod- 
ern method of thinking and being in order that 
we may see how human they were and how 
possible it is for us to learn from them and imi- 
tate them. If the great apostle could say that 
the experiences of the children of Israel were 
recorded for our admonition, how much more 
would he teach that the followers of Christ were 
not men far separated from us to-day, but 
brothers of like passions, and struggles, and 
needs, and failures, and successes. What Far- 
rar has done for us all in his "Life of Christ" 
we need to have done for us in connection with 
every character mentioned in the Bible. Dr. 
Stalker has helped much by so narrating the 
lives of some of the Old Testament heroes, but 
it has not been attempted to any extent with 
the noble body of men and women who are 
grouped about the dear Christ in the New 
Testament. We sincerely wish that what Dr. 
Hunter has done with John Mark could be done 
with many of the apostles and disciples and 
faithful women whom the casual reader knows 
only by name. We believe that it is a happy 



Introduction xi 

beginning of much healthy literature which 
shall prove the best kind of Bible commentary 
for our young church people. 

It may be objected that there is a kind of 
irreverence in thus bringing those whom tradi- 
tion and custom have united in naming "saints" 
down to the common life of our crude twenti- 
eth-century standards — that even the language 
of such histories as this volume should be a lit- 
tle more polished and reserved. But in an- 
swer, it must be remembered that we can only 
really grasp human nature when it stands side 
by side with us and speaks the every-day speech 
and evidences the every-day emotions. Too 
much of our religious study misses its mark be- 
cause expressed in the stilted language of the 
finished rhetorician or in the technical speech 
of the exact theologian. There are thousands 
of Christians to-day who will welcome and read 
and profit by such a story as this of John Mark, 
but who could not be reached by a technical 
history or a highly polished and unidiomatic 
narrative. The author, we take it, has not 
written for Bible scholars or theologians, but 
for the body of brave, true-hearted, believing 



xii Introduction 

Christian folk who are readily inspired by what 
they can understand. 

As long as life lasts there will be present with 
us an intense longing to be brought near to the 
Christ of history and near to his companions. 
Any attempt to satisfy honestly this longing is 
an attempt to enlarge the scope of personal 
struggle and to open the mind to a higher ideal. 
The bridging of the nineteen long centuries 
since Jesus walked in Palestine is to be accom- 
plished, not by linguistic dissection of Gospel 
or Epistle, nor by textual criticism which has 
neither basis from which to start nor end to 
which it tends, but by a simple, natural repro- 
duction of the men of long ago, so that they 
will walk with us on our streets and speak to 
us in our daily aspirations. Jesus is the same 
yesterday, to-day and forever ; and Christianity 
and Christian experience, and Christian battle, 
are the same, because centered in" him, the ever 
unchangeable One. It is good to know how 
St. Mark the Evangelist lived and fought and 
fell and conquered. We learn from him the 
fact of God's everlasting love and everlasting 

help * Floyd W. Tomkins. 

Holy Trinity Rectory, 
Philadelphia, June, 1903. 



FIRST PERIOD 

Character Receiving Its Bent — Heredity 
and Environment — Modern Evangelism 



JOHN MARK 



CHARACTER RECEIVING ITS BENT — HEREDITY 
AND ENVIRONMENT — MODERN EVANGELISM. 

No one would dispute Pope's familiar line 

"The proper study of mankind is man." 

And it is indisputable that character-study 
is the most practical and popular of the studies 
of the human subject. The most useful char- 
acter-study is a study of the life of a saint. It 
is more profitable to study the making of a saint 
than it is to study the making of an artist, a 
poet, a scholar, a soldier, or a statesman. The 
making of a saint is a grander achievement 
than the making of a state, a navy, a univer- 
sity, a poem, or a painting. 

Saints are not made in a day, but in a life- 
time. They are not made simply by the special 
means of grace, but also by the ordinary ex- 



4 John Mark 

periences of life. "All things work together 
for good" in the making of a saint. Whatso- 
ever ye do, if done for the glory of God, "re- 
flects as in a mirror the glory of Christ," and 
"ye are changed into the same image." And 
this is the making of a saint, the gradual chang- 
ing of the Old Man into the New Man. 

The author has selected John, whose sur- 
name was Mark, to illustrate the making of a 
saint. The reference, of course, is to the au- 
thor of the second Gospel, the Gospel according 
to St. Mark. 

It is surprising how little the average reader 
of the Bible knows about this saint. Beyond 
the fact that Mark wrote one of the four Gos- 
pels, few, comparatively, know anything about 
him. And yet the sacred narrative throws 
much light upon the character and career of 
John Mark. The allusions to him in the Acts 
and the Epistles, though few, are luminous. 
They imply much more than is expressed. 
They occur at turning points in his career and 
serve as outlines to his life, so that it needs only 
a disciplined imagination to fill up the gaps and 
produce an almost complete picture of the man. 



Character Receiving Its Bent 5 

The popular impression would seem to be 
that Mark was a commonplace disciple, in 
whose life there were no striking incidents, and 
in whose character there was nothing to excite 
special admiration. On the contrary, when all 
the facts in Mark's life scattered throughout 
the New Testament and the inferences to be 
drawn from them legitimately are brought to- 
gether, we are introduced to a most interesting 
character from a Christian standpoint, and 
have presented for our contemplation a career 
abounding in instruction for the aspirant after 
sainthood. 

In studying for inspiration any character that 
has attained unto eminence, we are most helped 
not by simply contemplating the finished prod- 
uct, but also by acquainting ourselves with the 
raw material, so to speak, and tracing the vari- 
ous stages of development, with its attendant 
vicissitudes. 

The writer does not know how others may 
have felt about the characters of the Bible, but 
he used to think that these old saints, particu- 
larly the apostles and evangelists of the New 
Testament, were — well, not exactly superhuman, 



6 John Mark 

and yet scarcely human! It was a long time 
before he came to realize that they were men of 
"like passions with us." He counted it a dis- 
tinct gain when he made that discovery, not 
that he likes to think worse of any man than he 
really is, but that he does like to think of every 
man just as he is. 

We are losers rather than gainers by the 
tendency to idealize our heroes. The whole 
point of James' argument for prayer, in citing 
the case of Elijah, whose prayer shut up the 
heaven from giving rain for the space of three 
years, and then again opened it so that the 
heaven gave rain, rests on the fact that the 
prophet was a man of "like passions with us." 
It is for the encouragement of all men to hope 
and strive for the best that the Bible preserves 
on its records the vices of its heroes, and not 
merely their virtues. If great and good men, 
after all, are only human, they show the in- 
herent greatness of our common humanity. 
And, indeed, genius, whether spiritual or intel- 
lectual, is neither miracle nor monstrosity. It 
is man at his best. Every individual genius 
proves the genius of humanity. 



Character Receiving Its Bent 7 

Now, John Mark was verily human. It isV 
not meant that he ever sank to the lowest 
depths of human degradation. Far from it. He 
was no prodigal son. It is said, "to err is hu- 
man." But we do not have to break every one 
of the ten commandments to prove that we are 
human. John Mark's faults were respectable, 
if faults are ever respectable. That is, Mark 
never lost standing in respectable society by 
any of his shortcomings. And for all that he 
is the better example of the making of a saint. 
His weaknesses represent the common weak- 
nesses of humanity. He is a sample of the 
average raw material out of which God makes 
saints. 

Ordinarily certain favoring conditions must 
exist in order to start a soul on the career of a 
saint. These conditions would seem to have 
been amply supplied in the case of John Mark. 
He was the son of his mother. Most good 
and great men are. The mother of John Mark 
was one of the famous group of Marys. His 
father, most likely a believer also, appears to 
have died not long after the crucifixion. The 
original home of the family would seem to 
have been on the island of Cyprus, where, pos- 



8 John Mark 

sibly, Mark first saw the light of day. But 
our earliest acquaintance with John Mark finds 
the family residing in Jerusalem. Here with- 
in the walls of this sacred city the most im- 
pressible years of Mark's life were spent. 
Daily the temple of Solomon would rise before 
his eyes and the Psalms of David resound in 
his ears. Here, too, Mark was permitted to 
see the uprising of another Temple that should 
endure forever and to hear the first reverbera- 
tions of the new song of Moses and the Lamb. 
John Mark was reared at the parting of the 
ways. 

Mary seems to have been left with a com- 
petency upon the death of her husband, and to 
have enjoyed the great boon of possessing a 
home of her own, where she could shelter her 
little flock with a sense of security and inde- 
pendence. While wealth and a luxurious home 
may not be the most favorable condition in 
which to cultivate a saintly character, yet a 
home from which want and the rent-collector 
are banished certainly offers the most favor- 
able chances for the rearing of saints. To be 
sure, something more than a legal title is nec- 
essary to constitute a home. But the measure 



Character Receiving Its Bent 9 

of thrift indicated by the ownership of one's 
home, and the feelings engendered and fos- 
tered by such a happy lot, are prime conditions 
to the surest rearing and maintaining of noble 
characters. John Mark represents the great 
majority of those who turn out to be true 
saints — the great middle class of plain, thrifty 
home-builders. It is true that while the foxes 
have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, 
the Son of Man had not where to lay his head. 
But in this Jesus did not pose as our example, 
as he did not in some other things, in the mat- 
ter of marriage, for instance. 

Some modern advocates of certain revolu- 
tionary doctrines think that the best type of 
manhood cannot be produced until great social 
changes take place. And Jesus and his gospel 
are quoted to support the rankest socialistic or 
communistic theories. But Mary, the mother 
of John Mark, may be cited as proof of a con- 
trary spirit in the life and teaching of Jesus. 
No doubt Mary acknowledged her obligations 
to others, and likely was one of those women 
"who ministered unto him of their substance." 
But she does not seem to have been led away 
by the excitement which arose later among the 



io John Mark 

disciples at Jerusalem, when "all that believed 
were together, and had all things common; 
and sold their possessions and goods, and part- 
ed them to all men, as every man had need." 
She seemed to think that private ownership of 
property was consistent with the full discharge 
of one's duty to his neighbor. We must be- 
lieve that Mary, by her devotion to Christ and 
immediate touch with his life and teaching, 
had imbibed the true spirit of the Gospel. Un- 
doubtedly Jesus was a socialist in a true sense, 
and, if his example and teachings were faith- 
fully followed, no doubt many changes would 
be wrought in the constitution of modern so- 
ciety. In a word, the socialism of Jesus may 
be described as making the individual respon- 
sible for society, rather than society responsi- 
ble for the individual. 

That Mary retained possession of her house 
is evidenced by the fact that it continued for 
years to be the headquarters of the disciples 
when in Jerusalem, and as such was always 
referred to as "the house of Mary." We say 
continued to be the headquarters, for while 
Jesus was still living he and his disciples ap- 
pear to have made "the house of Mary" their 



Character Receiving Its Bent 1 1 

resting place when, during the hours of the 
day, they had occasion to be in Jerusalem. At 
night they would always retire to the country 
or village of Bethany. There is no record that 
Jesus, during all his public ministry, ever slept 
in Jerusalem. It is thought by some that Jesus 
ate his farewell supper with the disciples at 
the home of Mary. And some have conjec- 
tured that "the man bearing a pitcher of 
water," whom the two disciples met as they 
went to make preparation for the last supper, 
was John Mark. If this conjecture be correct, 
then this would be the earliest reference to 
Mark. But this would hardly seem to be a 
probable conjecture. 

The first mention by name of John Mark is 
found in an account of a meeting in Mary's 
house, a decade or more after the death of 
Jesus. It was during a fresh outbreak of per- 
secution, shortly after the death of Stephen, 
the first Christian martyr. The apostle James 
having been put to death, Simon Peter was 
cast into prison to await his turn. But the 
angel of the Lord, as on a previous occasion, 
descended to deliver the apostle out of the 
hands of his persecutors, and in the closing 



12 John Mark 

hours of what was intended to be his last night 
on earth, led him forth a free man into the 
streets of Jerusalem. And, as the record runs, 
"When he had considered the thing, he came 
to the house of Mary, the mother of John, 
whose surname was Mark, where many were 
gathered together praying." 

John Mark must have been at that prayer- 
meeting, as he had been at others before in the 
same place. He was not at first an active par- 
ticipant in these meetings, but only an inter- 
ested spectator, such as those whom we now 
denominate "adherents," "associate members," 
"occasional visitors," or "a friend" brought in 
by a member. But he was present, and it was 
good for him to be at the church in his 
mother's house, even if only as an "outsider." 
It could not be otherwise than that the earnest 
prayers offered, the warm exhortations given, 
and the good fellowship enjoyed, should make 
a profound impression upon the heart of the 
young man. We are not surprised, therefore, 
to gather that Mark was converted, probably, 
a few years before the meeting just referred to. 
While for some time he had not been far from 
the kingdom of God, at last he comes out 



Character Receiving Its Bent 13 

openly into the kingdom. The honor of win- 
ning this promising convert to Christ belongs 
to Simon Peter. This apostle calls him "my 
son/' in the same manner that Paul calls Tim- 
othy "my son." But the conversion of Mark 
was an instance where "one soweth and another 
reapeth." Mary and others had been sowing, 
but Peter entered into their labors and gathered 
"fruit unto eternal life." 

John Mark was the first young man to join i 
the Christian Church, so far as we have any 
mention of individual cases. He could not 
have been out of his teens when he took this 
important step. Of course, we do not think 
now of that age as being young to connect with 
the Church. In modern times the majority of 
members have united with the Church by the 
time they are as old as was Mark, or very little 
older. 

The fact is, there is no particular age at 
which one ought to be expected to "get relig- 
ion" and join the Church. It ought to be taken 
for granted that every child is a child of the 
kingdom, and that the souls of all infants have 
been redeemed by the atonement of Christ. 
The Church should put her loving arms about 



14 John Mark 

the babe in the cradle and bear it on her bosom 
through life to the grave. Little children are 
budding saints, and they should be planted in 
the House of the Lord to "grow up into him 
in all things." While the Church confesses her 
mission to the children, especially in these lat- 
ter days, yet she makes bungling work with 
them, and lets them get away from her in large 
numbers. As a great American preacher has 
said, "Here are the children among us, and we 
open our Sunday schools and make it bright 
for them, and do get very close to them there 
with the love of God, but all the while we feel 
that the Church does not more than half know 
what to do with them; its theories and ma- 
chineries are made for grown-up people. It 
wishes the children would hurry and grow up, 
so that it might know how to talk to them, 
what to do with and what to make of them." 
The trouble begins with our wrong concep- 
tions of what religion is, and of the capacity of 
the child to be religious. Now, religion is life, 
possessed and directed by God. And to doubt 
the capacity of a child to be religious is as ab- 
surd as to doubt the ability of a child to live 
at all. 



Character Receiving Its Bent 15 

The vicious theory that one must attain a 
certain age before he can have any true relig- 
ious experience will account, in a large meas- 
ure, for the astonishing number of the un- 
churched to be found in communities enjoying 
church privileges from the beginning. If the 
next generation is to witness a more general 
attendance upon our church services, this gen- 
eration must be more faithful in holding on to 
the young of the present. Think, for a mo- 
ment, on the condition that exists at the pres- 
ent time in respect to church attendance ! It is 
conservatively estimated that more than one- 
half of our entire population never crosses the 
threshold of any church ! The greater propor- 
tion of these are men. The male members of 
our churches constitute only one-third of the 
entire membership. It is estimated that no less 
than five millions of young men in this country 
never darken a church door, and that another 
million and a half attend some church occa- 
sionally without identifying themselves with 
any church. The working-men of our country 
constitute the largest percentage of the non- 
attendants. Indeed, there are thousands and 
thousands of men in the mills and factories of 



1 6 John Mark 

our industrial centers who are almost as igno- 
rant of the Bible as the unevangelized heathen. 
The only hope for these unchurched masses 
is, somehow, to bring them and the Church 
into touch, in order to their conversion. John 
Mark was first brought under the influence of 
the Church, and then followed logically his 
conversion. Nothing short of the conversion 
of souls is worthy of the Church, in seeking to 
reach men. And men are more readily reached 
when it is apparent that this is the chief con- 
cern and ultimate aim of the Church. Other 
objects may be allowed as secondary and inter- 
mediary to this supreme end. But the Church 
must be candid with the world and confess that 
the salvation of souls is its one supreme object. 
It is to be feared that the Church often needs to 
keep before it the fact that for this object alone 
it exists and labors. To make "associate mem- 
bers" of unconverted young people, is well 
enough as a first step, but it is worse than vain 
unless it leads to the next step, namely, the full 
and complete surrender of such members to 
Christ. The gathering of the children and 
others into the Sunday-schools is an urgent 
duty and a blessed privilege, but to stop there 



Character Receiving Its Bent 17 

is to end in failure. "Church sociables'* and 
"entertainments," under proper restrictions, 
are tolerable only as a means of paving the 
way that leads to the cross. Unless they are 
made a means in the conversion of their mem- 
bers, "brigades," "clubs," "societies" within 
the Church are only bringing the world into 
the Church. If the "institutional Church," 
about which we hear so much these days, makes 
the physical, intellectual, social, the sole or chief 
object, it will prove a misnomer. 

John Mark never could have had any other 
idea than that the Church yearned only to 
make him a true child of God. And here is 
where the Church got such a hold on the young 
man. That was the secret of the attraction of 
the Church for him. 

Fortunately, perhaps, he did not have to go 
to church — the church came to him. That was 
because the first disciples did not have any 
church buildings. What if the church edi- 
fices of a later period are barriers to 
reaching the masses with the gospel? May 
it not be possible that the soldiers of Christ, 
in these latter days, are in danger of stick- 
ing too closely to their barracks? How- 



1 8 John Mark 

ever, the signs of the times seem to indicate 
that a more aggressive spirit is taking posses- 
sion of the Church of Christ. "Forward" 
seems to be the watchword of the hour. The 
favorite hymn, the battle hymn of the Church, 
is that beginning with the inspiring words: 

"Onward, Christian soldiers, 

Marching as to war, 
With the cross of Jesus 
Going on before." 

No doubt the recent uprising of the young 
people, with their enthusiasm and splendid or- 
ganizations, has had much to do in arousing 
the Church to greater activity, especially in the 
direction of reaching the masses. The Chris- 
tian Endeavor Society and other Young Peo- 
ple's organizations are splendidly equipped for 
carrying on an aggressive campaign, and no 
doubt they have "come to the kingdom for 
such a time as this." Girdling the earth as they 
do, lining the streets and avenues of our cities, 
and encamping on the hills and in the valleys 
of the country, they are in a strategic position 
to come up "to the help of the Lord, to the help 
of the Lord against the mighty." The service 
of this great army of young recruits will be 



Character Receiving Its Bent 19 

specially helpful in reaching the hosts of young 
people who are outside the kingdom. The 
young can influence the young as older people 
cannot. Rehoboam still forsakes the counsel 
of the old men, and consults with the young 
men. 

v It is sometimes said that the changed condi- 
tions of modern life have made it much harder 
to reach the masses with the Gospel, and that 
former methods are wholly inadequate: Young 
people, especially, are thought to be more diffi- 
cult to interest in the Church and religious sub- 
jects than was formerly the case. Particu- 
larly, when the first century is compared with 
the twentieth century, is the situation thought 
to be entirely different. And especially when 
the case of John Mark's conversion is cited, as 
an illustration of what the Church can do to- 
day in reaching young men is there a disposi- 
tion to deny that it is applicable to the situa- 
tion in our day. » It might be questioned if John 
Mark before his conversion represents the 
typical young man of the world to-day. 

Mark may appear to have had better antece- 
dents, and to have been more favorably envi- 
roned, than the average young man of the pres- 



20 John Mark 

ent. It might seem to have been comparatively 
easy to find the material for a saint in one 
brought up in such a home as that of Mary, 
and surrounded with the associations peculiar 
to that home. 

It is generally conceded that not only phy- 
sically, but also mentally and spiritually, the 
parent transmits characteristics and tendencies 
to the child. Paul would seem to recognize 
this law of heredity when he uses this language 
in one of his letters to Timothy, "having been 
reminded of the unfeigned faith that is in thee, 
which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and 
thy mother Eunice. " John Mark no doubt in- 
herited a religious tendency from his Jewish 
parents, and, possibly, from a long line of 
pious Israelites. His environment, too, that is, 
his home training and example, as well as early 
association with the disciples of the Lord, was 
a potent factor in giving a religious bent to 
his character. But we may easily overestimate 
the advantages of good parentage and a Chris- 
tian home, or rather, underestimate the force 
of the counteracting influences of the world. 
Who has not seen many young persons, 
brought up in Christian homes, straying off 



Character Receiving Its Bent 21 

into sinful lives? And we may discount too 
much for the disadvantages of being brought 
up in homes not professedly Christian. Who 
has not seen many children of non-professing 
parents become most exemplary Christians? 

As for the influence of the world upon John 
Mark, it must be allowed that the conditions 
which surrounded him in Jerusalem at that 
age of the world were less favorable to his 
accepting Christianity than is the case to-day 
with young men. Talk about modern skepti- 
cism poisoning the minds of young men in our 
day! Why, the skepticism concerning the 
claims of Jesus the Christ, in the first century, 
was a thousand-fold greater than it is in the 
twentieth century! "Who hath believed our 
report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord 
revealed ?" was the wail sent up by the Church 
at the dawn of our era. We stand aghast, as 
we well may, at the blighting effect upon the 
men of the present age of rampant commercial- 
ism ! But in the age of John Mark, too, "the 
love of money was a root of all evil" ; and the 
early disciples thought no one could be saved 
because Jesus had observed, "How hardly shall 
they who trust in riches enter the kingdom of 



22 John Mark 

heaven. " We decry the social influences to- 
day, drawing our young people away from 
serious subjects, and making our young men 
believe they cannot succeed in life if they be- 
come Christians, exposing them to petty perse- 
cutions if they try to live as Jesus would have 
them live! But let me call the reader's atten- 
tion to an incident in John Mark's life which 
may have been overlooked, and in connection 
with which we have our very first introduction 
to the evangelist. 

It is the night of the betrayal. The soldiers, 
conducted by the traitorous Judas and followed 
by a mob, start out in search of the innocent 
One. They first go to the single house in all 
that great city that welcomed the despised 
Nazarene; but not finding there the object of 
their search, they hasten to the familiar resort 
of Jesus and his disciples — the garden of Geth- 
semane. And when they have found Jesus and 
taken him and the return to the city is begun, 
the disciples having all fled, we are told : "And 
a certain young man followed with him, hav- 
ing a linen cloth cast about him, over his naked 
body; and they lay hold on him; but he left 
the linen cloth, and fled naked." That young 



Character Receiving Its Bent 23 

man was John Mark ! Awakened by the noise 
of the soldiers as they searched his father's 
house, and instantly taking in the situation, 
John Mark, without taking - time to dress, has- 
tened to Gethsemane, in hopes, no doubt, of 
giving timely warning to Jesus. But he found 
he was too late — his Master was already a pris- 
oner. Still hoping to be of some service to the 
dear Lord in the hour of his distress, John 
Mark followed the crowd on the return to the 
city, until his presence was discovered and he 
was obliged to flee for his life. 

This incident throws much light upon the 
character of John Mark, but it is cited here to 
show the persecution to which he was sub- 
jected for avowing sympathy with Jesus. What 
he had to put up with, both before and after 
the crucifixion, we can well imagine. If the 
men who laid hold on him the night of the 
betrayal and arrest of Jesus were "young 
men," as the Authorized Version has it, we 
can infer the petty annoyances, social ostra- 
cism, and general boycotting to which John 
Mark was exposed on account of his relations 
to Christ. No such hardships have to be en- 
dured to-day on account of a Christian profes- 



24 Jol 111 Mark 

sion, outside of heathendom. No doubt a con- 
sistent Christian life would still keep one out 
of certain social circles, would break many a 
friendship, and might lose one a valuable posi- 
tion. But truer friends, better society, and, 
likely, a better position, would await any one 
having to break with sinful relations on ac- 
count of a Christian life. 

Evangelism has no more difficult task before 
it to-day than it ever has had, and in Christian 
lands, in this twentieth century, the difficulties 
are not nearly so great as they were in Pales- 
tine in the first century. New conditions do 
exist and new methods have to be employed 
to a certain extent; but it has been true from 
the beginning and will remain true to the end, 
that the conversion of the world to Christ must 
be accomplished by going everywhere and 
preaching the Gospel to every creature, both 
collectively and individually. We must go 
everywhere calling men to be saints, and al- 
though "many are called and but few are 
chosen," yet we must not tarry in our divinely 
appointed mission. 

"Go, labor on while it is day: 

The world's dark night is hastening on. 
Speed, speed thy work, cast sloth away; 
It is not thus that souls are won." 



SECOND PERIOD 

Taking up Definite Work — Leaving Home 
— Young People and the Church 



II. 



TAKING UP DEFINITE WORK — LEAVING HOME 
— YOUNG PEOPLE AND THE CHURCH. 

John Mark is now a member of the Church. 
But joining the Church does not make one a 
saint. One is then only in the way of becoming 
a saint. We are "new-born babes" when we 
join the Church, and we join the Church "for 
the perfecting of the saints — till we all come 
— unto a perfect man." Everything depends, 
of course, upon the use we make of the 
Church. Man was not made for the Church — 
the Church was made for man. The Church is 
a means to an end — a means of grace to help 
us to become like Christ. 

What kind of a member will John Mark 
make, now that he has joined the Church ? 
There are church-members and church-mem- 
bers. Some, apparently, look upon the Church 
as a train of Pullman sleeping-cars on which 
they may take passage, and, leaving word with 
the porter to awaken them, may snugly tuck 



28 John Mark 

themselves away in their berths until the train 
finally pulls into the Grand Terminal! 

Some young people even seem to have the 
sleeping-car idea of the Church. "Now, my 
dear young friend," says the pastor, address- 
ing a recent convert, "since the Lord has mer- 
cifully saved your soul and you have been re- 
ceived into his Church, I suppose you are anx- 
ious to take up some Christian work to prove 
your gratitude to your Saviour for all that he 
has done for you?" "Christian work! What 
do you mean, pastor?" replies the astonished 
member. "I thought you said we are not saved 
by works, but by faith alone. And does not 
the hymn say, 

'O to be nothing, nothing, 
Only to lie at his feet'?" 

"Yes, I surely did say that we are not saved 
by our good works," responds the no less as- 
tonished pastor; "and you have quoted the 
hymn correctly, so far as you went, but it con- 
tinues, 

'A broken and empty vessel, 
For the Master's use made meet. 
Emptied that he might fill me, 
As forth to his service I go.' 



Taking Up Definite Work 29 

We are nothing and can bring nothing in 
our hands, when we come to God for the par- 
don of our sins. But you have passed that 
point, and are now supposed to be a pardoned 
sinner. As such you are now to do works 
meet for repentance." 

"But I cannot do anything, I have no tal- 
ent/' humbly rejoins the new convert. "Be- 
sides, there are plenty in the Church to do all 
there is to be done. I will attend the services 
on Sunday, if the weather will permit and I 
have no other engagement." 

"Well, my dear young friend," continues 
the pastor, "it is true no one of us can do any- 
thing in his own strength, but we can all say 
with Paul, 'I can do all things through Christ 
who strengthened me. And there is plenty 
for all to do, and more, too. Besides, you can- 
not afford to let others do all the work of the 
Church. You must work out your own salva- 
tion. It is not enough to attend the services 
on the Lord's day and the mid-week service, 
even were you never to miss a single one of 
them. Worship is most important, but the 
Lord expects us to go from his worship 
strengthened for service. We cannot worship 



30 John Mark 

as we should unless we serve. Worship with- 
out service is formal and empty. After hav- 
ing served the Lord faithfully, worship is 
sweet and helpful. And now as you are young, 
I would suggest that you join the Young Peo- 
ple's Society, and put yourself under training 
for the Master's service." 

"Join the Young People's Society! No, 
never," answers this young convert, with ill- 
concealed dismay. "Why, pastor, I never 
could think of praying and speaking in pub- 
lic." 

"Well, now, my dear girl," continues the 
patient pastor, "I don't say that you must nec- 
essarily pray and speak in public, not even in 
the presence of the members of the society. 
There is something to do for Christ besides 
praying and speaking in meetings. Although 
I think you might probably be able to take part 
in the meetings in the course of time, and I 
am sure it would do you a lot of good, and 
others good, too, provided you could do so 
without bringing on yourself a nervous attack. 
I understand you have no difficulty in speak- 
ing in other meetings, as those of the Literary 
Club." 



Taking Up Definite Work 3 1 

"Oh, I suppose I might be able to do so after 
a time," says this young woman, having her 
pride a little touched. "I think I can learn to 
do what any other girl can, if I want to. But 
I am not going to be bound by a pledge." 

"But you are already bound by a pledge, as 
a member of the Church," continues the pas- 
tor. "And the pledge of the Society does not 
add to or take from that original covenant." 
Here the young woman drops her head in si- 
lence, and the pastor wisely concludes not to 
press the subject further at the present time. 

But John Mark did not take the sleeping- 
car view of the Church. He thought of 
church-members as those who had "awakened 
out of sleep" and were "the children of the 
light, and children of the day." He was not 
so much looking for transportation to the 
skies as he was for something to do down here 
on the earth. 

We do not know what specific work John 
Mark engaged in during the first few years of 
his discipleship. The fact is, it was about all 
a believer could do in those days in Jerusalem 
to keep out of prison ! We do know, however, 
that when the first opportunity presented itself, 



32 John Mark 

John Mark did take up a specific line of relig- 
ious work. 

It came about in this way: Barnabas and 
Saul (afterwards Paul) came down from An- 
tioch, the Syrian capital, to Jerusalem, being 
sent by the brethren to deliver to the elders of 
the Church in the latter city a contribution for 
the relief of the needy brethren in time of a 
famine. On the occasion of this visit to Jeru- 
salem, Barnabas and Saul met John Mark, 
they, in all probability, being entertained while 
in the city at the home of Mary. Barnabas 
was a relative of the family, some thinking he 
was a brother of Mary. But the Revised Ver- 
sion makes it plain that Mark was "the cousin 
of Barnabas." Now, whether the disciples, 
attracted to Mark, first suggested the idea ; or, 
whether Mark, hearing from the lips of the 
disciples the wonderful story of the work at 
Antioch, first made the proposition; it was 
planned that, when Barnabas and Saul re- 
turned to Antioch, John Mark should accom- 
pany them, to engage in the work there under 
their direction. Accordingly we read in the 
Acts, "And Barnabas and Saul returned from 
Jerusalem, when they had fulfilled their minis- 



Taking Up Definite Work 33 

try, and took with them John, whose surname 
was Mark." 

This was a step showing great consecration 
on the part of Mark to the service of the Mas- 
ter. / It involved the leaving of all and follow- 
ing Jesus. The back was turned upon every 
other occupation and the life was devoted to 
the service of religion. Such an abandonment 
of worldly avocations for the vocation of relig- 
ion becomes the duty of a few in all ages. But 
every believer must devote a portion of his 
time, away from the cares of the world, to dis- 
tinctively Christian labor. What a strength- 
ening it would be to the Church if all her mem- 
bers would systematically give each week a 
definite number of hours to religious work! 
But the choice Mark made also involved the 
abandoning of home and native land. Not 
every believer is called upon to leave home and 
to journey afar to help spread the Gospel. 
Most of us find our field of labor for Christ in 
our own homes and in our own neighborhoods. 
No doubt that is the most difficult field to cul- 
tivate. "A prophet is not without honor, save 
in his own country.'' Even Jesus could not 
do many mighty works in Nazareth, where he 



34 J°hn Mark 

had been brought up. Even his own brothers 
did not believe in him until towards the last. 
His own mother, besides his sisters and 
brothers, hearing of his public works, said he 
was "beside himself." John Mark seems to have 
been induced to leave Jerusalem and labor in 
Antioch by the consideration of an exceptional 
opportunity. As long as any part of the world 
remains without a knowledge of the blessed 
tidings of salvation, it becomes the duty of 
some to quit their homes and country and go 
to the ends of the world to proclaim the glad 
news of salvation. Mark was but following 
the example of the apostles and other evangel- 
ists in departing from Jerusalem and going to 
the uttermost parts of the world to preach the 
Gospel. 

It must have been after no little struggle 
that John Mark made up his mind to leave his 
widowed mother all alone and set out for the 
distant city of Syria. While Antioch was only 
three hundred miles from Jerusalem, it must 
be remembered that in that day this was much 
farther than the same distance would be in our 
day, with present modes of travel. Three hun- 
dred miles then would be equivalent to almost 



Taking Up Definite Work 35 

six thousand miles now. A missionary in 
China to-day is not separated much farther 
from his friends at home here in America than 
was John Mark in Syria. And Antioch was 
not to be the limit of his journeying either, as 
we shall presently see. A true spirit of con- 
secration is evidenced by the breaking of home 
ties, as in this instance of John Mark. We 
have here a beautiful illustration of the senti- 
ment of the hymn by Mary Brown : 

"But if by a still small voice he calls 

To paths I do not know, 
I'll answer, dear Lord, with my hand in thine, 
I'll go where you want me to go." 

Leaving home for the first time, and going 
out to battle with the world, is a most interest- 
ing period in any young person's life. It is a 
time of sorrow and anxiety for the parent, and 
of mingled sadness and joy for the child. But 
surely no parent had less need of anxiety than 
had Mary at Mark's going. He could not 
have been better prepared to meet the world's 
temptations, or gone forth under more favor- 
able auspices. And then to part with a son or 
daughter, leaving home upon a mission such 
as Mark was entering upon, must be one of 



36 John Mark 

those sacrifices a Christian parent makes with 
pride and pleasure. The prior claim of the 
Master upon our children is recognized by 
every Christian parent; and it makes it easy, 
comparatively, to give up a son or daughter 
when told "the Lord has need of him." And 
knowing that it is wrong to love father or 
mother more than Jesus, a consecrated child 
will, at the call of God, promptly leave all and 
follow him. 

In turning his face towards Antioch, John 
Mark followed the direction of the providen- 
tial movement of his day. He would seem to 
have discerned the signs of the times. There 
were clear indications that the kingdom of God 
was about to break over the narrow bounda- 
ries of the past, to be confined no more to Pal- 
estine and the Hebrew people, but to expand 
and become a world power. The Gentiles were 
to be brought in ; and the first decisive events 
inaugurating this religious revolution were 
then taking place at Antioch. Henceforth 
Antioch, and not Jerusalem, was to be the cen- 
ter of religious activity and influence. John 
Mark was in entire sympathy with the new de- 
parture, and cast in his lot with the broad, 



Taking Up Definite Work 37 

catholic party of the Apostolic Church. No 
doubt these two most progressive of all the dis- 
ciples, Barnabas and Saul, greatly influenced 
Mark; but it was natural for an earnest and 
bright young man, like John Mark, to sympa- 
thize with the views of the Gentile party, rath- 
er than with the Judaizers. 

We look to the young people of our 
churches to favor every wise forward move- 
ment. Elderly people are apt to be over-con- 
servative. A safe combination is always an 
older head to lead and a younger heart to fol- 
low. John Mark could be trusted on venturing 
into new paths, under the leadership of the 
more experienced disciples, Barnabas and 
Saul. 

As a further indication that a new order of 
things was rapidly developing, it occurred, 
about the time when Mark went to Syria, that 
"the disciples were first called Christians at 
Antioch." Heretofore the disciples were re- 
garded as a sect of the Jews. But now their 
departure from the customs of the Jews and 
their extension among the Gentiles seemed to 
demand a distinctive designation. Therefore, 
the inhabitants of Antioch, perhaps in deri- 



38 John Mark 

sion, called them Christians. Hearing the dis- 
ciples speak the name of Christ so frequently 
and profess such love for the Christ, how nat- 
ural to call them "Christ-ones!" The name 
seems not to have been unacceptable to the dis- 
ciples, and in a comparatively brief time to 
have become current. It is the one universally 
acknowledged title of believers to-day in all 
the world. Many other descriptive names 
have been added, such as Roman Catholic, 
Protestant, Greek, Lutheran, Presbyterian, 
Episcopalian, Methodist, Baptist, etc. But 
these names are chiefly indicative of the many 
unhappy divisions of the Church. Would that 
the disciples were still called simply Chris- 
tians ! May the day speed on its way when we 
shall drop these given names and retain only 
the surname! 

But Antioch, as intimated a while ago, was 
not to be the permanent field of John Mark's 
labors. He was destined to journey farther. 
How long he remained in the capital of Syria, 
we have no means of knowing positively, but 
it probably did not exceed two years. 

As already observed, the Church was under- 
going a revolution. It was beginning to slip 



Taking Up Definite Work 39 

away from the Jews and to become pre-emi- 
nently a Gentile Church. Antioch, a Gentile 
city, is supplanting Jerusalem; and now the 
most important step yet taken in the direction 
of a change from the policy of the past is 
about to be taken. This was the remarkable 
movement having for its object the carrying 
of the Gospel into the foreign parts of Asia 
Minor, and, ultimately, the western continent 
of Europe. In the execution of this purpose 
John Mark was permitted to bear a part. 

It was probably in the year a. d. 48 that 
Barnabas and Saul set out from Antioch upon 
the first of the three famous Foreign Mission- 
ary Journeys, in the interests of a world-wide 
Christianity. Their first stop was on the island 
of Cyprus, and it. was while they were at Sala- 
mis, one of the capitals of the island, that we 
learn that John Mark formed one of this, the 
first Foreign Missionary Band to be sent forth 
by the Church. We read in the journal of this 
tour, as entered at Salamis, "And they had 
also John as their attendant." 

It was a great privilege to be permitted to 
have part in this movement, which, as one has 
said, "has changed the very history of the 



40 John Mark 

world." It is only given to a generation, now 
and then, to live at a time big with events cal- 
culated to change the current of the world's 
life. Not every one who does live at such a 
crisis is wise enough and brave enough to con- 
tribute his share towards shaping future des- 
tinies. But John Mark was found on the side 
of the makers of history and the promoters of 
the world's progress. 

Ours is a generation second only to that in 
which John Mark lived in witnessing changes, 
both in Church and State, of far-reaching im- 
portance. 

"We are living, we are dwelling, 
In a grand and awful time — 
In an age on ages telling, 
To be living is sublime." 

The great enterprise of the world's evan- 
gelization, begun by Barnabas and Saul and 
Mark, two thousand years ago, was halted be- 
fore it reached its consummation. The Gospel 
has never yet been preached in all the world. 
But the Church in our day has nobly taken up 
the work where the apostles left it off, and is 
pushing the kingdom of God throughout the 
whole of Asia, Africa, and the islands of the 



Taking Up Definite Work 41 

sea. Christian civilization is becoming aggres- 
sive, and is grappling, as never before, with 
barbarism. Truly, "to be living is sublime," 
if we are doing our several parts, as best we 
can, to bring the whole world into the enjoy- 
ment of the blessings, temporal and eternal, of 
the religion of Christ. 

In this brief historical record — "And they 
had also John as their attendant," we have the 
first intimation of the particular kind of work 
John Mark performed. It is true the state- 
ment is very general. An "attendant" may be 
only a traveling companion or servant. But 
John was neither a menial servant nor an orna- 
mental appendage. His position, we may be 
sure, was one of dignity and usefulness. He 
accompanied the disciples to assist them in 
their work as he might be able and as they 
might direct. Among his other duties, no 
doubt, would be that of looking after the details 
of their journeying and sojourning, such as 
the conveying from place to place of their bag- 
gage, the securing of lodgings at the different 
towns visited, and the arranging for places in 
which to hold their meetings. Besides these 
duties of a business manager, Mark may have 



42 John Mark 

at times acted in the capacity of an amanuen- 
sis to Paul. But these more humble duties 
would not occupy all of Mark's time nor sat- 
isfy his ambition. He would also publicly read 
the Scriptures for the disciples, and testify in 
the hearing of the various assemblies as to 
what he knew of Jesus the Christ. John Mark, 
in the discharge of his various duties, was, as 
we would say to-day, one of the original trus- 
tees, deacons, vestrymen, lay readers, local 
preachers. On account of his traveling about 
and giving his testimony to Jesus, he would be 
classed, in his day, as an evangelist. When, 
however, he is spoken of to-day as an evan- 
gelist, it is simply meant that he wrote one of 
the four Gospels. Traveling evangelists, in the 
Apostolic Church, would seem to have been 
only laymen, and never put in charge of a 
church. 

Mark was willing to turn his hand to any 
work, however humble, in the cause of Christ. 
He did not hesitate to relieve his superiors of 
drudgery, or to take orders from them. There 
was about him no false pride or uppishness. 
While in no sense a sycophant, Mark esteemed 
it an honor to serve the great. He was a good 



Taking Up Definite Work 43 

example of Emerson's advice: "Serve the 
great. Stick at no humiliation. Grudge no 
office thou canst render. Be limb to their body, 
breath to their mouth. Compromise thy ego- 
tism." 

Before leaving this original band of mis- 
sionaries, it should be observed that it is com- 
posed of representative men. Barnabas repre- 
sents the experienced in service, Paul the great 
champion of truth, and John Mark the enthu- 
siasm of youth. Here is a strong combination 
of forces ! Here we have the wise in counsel, 
the strong in controversy, and the enthusiastic 
in action! 

The Church has never been without wise 
counselors and mighty controversialists; but 
she has suffered at times for the want of youth- 
ful enthusiasm. Her young people have not 
always been sufficiently recognized. Only re- 
cently has the Church awakened to the fact 
that she has a mighty force for good in her 
youth. 

Much apprehension seems to exist in certain 
quarters lest the numbers and activity of the 
young people in our churches, in these recent 
days, prove a hindrance rather than a help to 



44 J°hn Mark 

the efficiency of the churches. There is need, 
of course, that wise guidance be given to these 
Young People's Organizations. But there is 
greater occasion for apprehension lest the en- 
thusiasm of our young people in the matters of 
the Church be not sustained. There will be 
more need of the spur than of the bit. 

Proof of this last statement will be found 
even in the experience of this original mission- 
ary band, as we shall see at our very next 
glance at young Mark, in the following chap- 
ter. 



THIRD PERIOD 

Deserting the Post of Duty — Reasons Why 
Young People Fail — The Grace of Perse- 
verance 



III. 



DESERTING THE POST OF DUTY — REASONS WHY 
YOUNG PEOPLE FAIL THE GRACE OF PER- 
SEVERANCE. 

And where do we next find the hero of our 
story? When last seen he was at Salamis of 
Cyprus, in the faithful discharge of his ap- 
pointed tasks. Since then a few months have 
rolled around, and the missionary band having 
finished its work in Cyprus, has sailed to the 
coasts of Asia Minor. John Mark then next 
appears upon the scene on this eastern conti- 
nent, in Perga of Pamphylia. But it is in a 
very different role that he appears from that 
in which he appeared at Salamis. Then he 
was standing nobly by his post of duty, now 
he is shamefully deserting his post of duty. 
This is the record we find in the journal kept 
by Luke: "John departed from them and re- 
turned to Jerusalem." 

Certainly there must have been some good 
reason for this sudden and disappointing ac- 



48 John Mark 

tion. Why, the vessel bearing this missionary 
party from Cyprus had just arrived at port in 
Asia. Surely John Mark must have expected 
to enter upon the work with the disciples in 
this new field. Why, then, depart from the dis- 
ciples and return to Jerusalem on the very 
threshold of a "great door and effectual" 
opened unto him? Is he suddenly taken ill? 
No, that was not the reason why he returned 
home. Maybe, then, he found a letter await- 
ing him at Perga from his mother, summon- 
ing him home. But neither does that explain 
his sudden departure. Was he dismissed, 
then, by the disciples, and sent home? Oh, no, 
he had no such sufficient reason as that for his 
abrupt departure! Possibly, then, he has just 
gone home on a short vacation. But vaca- 
tions had not yet come into vogue, and, be- 
sides, missionaries are expected to serve a 
longer term before they take a furlough. Well, 
then, might it not be that there occurred a 
shortage in the funds of the Missionary Board 
at Antioch, and, therefore, it became neces- 
sary to recall Mark? But it does not appear 
that there was any salary promised; and, be- 
sides, the tentmakers, Paul and Barnabas, 



Deserting the Post of Duty 49 

would not have suffered any need of finances 
to interfere with the successful prosecution of 
the work which they had undertaken. 

The truth is, John Mark had no justifiable 
excuse for departing from Saul and Barnabas 
at Perga of Pamphylia. No doubt he thought 
he had, just as many young people often think 
they have some reason which they can con- 
scientiously give to their Lord and Master for 
failing, at times, to keep their engagements. 

Unfortunately, there is much confusion of 
thought in the minds of many on the subject 
of conscience. Conscience is a voice within 
which always bids us do what is right and re- 
frain from doing what is wrong, praising or 
blaming us, according as we obey or disobey 
its voice. It does not, however, determine for 
us what is right and what is wrong. That we 
have to think out for ourselves, determine from 
such wisdom as we may possess, in the exercise 
of our best judgment. Many a one has thought 
that he was blameless in some mistaken course 
because he acted conscientiously. But it 
should be remembered that conscience, in order 
to be a safe guide, must be enlightened, and 
that we are accountable for the enlightenment 



50 John Mark 

of our conscience. We are bound not only to 
let the Hght of experience and reason give di- 
rection to our conscience, but also, and more 
especially, are we bound to seek the light of 
God's Word and the guidance of the Holy 
Spirit. We must be conscientious in prepara- 
tion as well as in action — in the making up of 
our minds as to what is right, as well as in the 
doing of the right when once we have our 
minds made up. 

If John Mark had given a little more con- 
scientious thought to the course he premedi- 
tated taking, he probably would not have felt 
justified in taking it. 

That Mark had no sufficient reason for de- 
parting from the disciples at Perga would 
seem to be made plain by the fact that Paul, 
at least, never excused him. This will appear 
a little later. And now, since none of the rea- 
sons just supposed can have been the real one, 
and since the real one is not given, we are left 
to conjecture as to just why John Mark took 
the course he did at Perga. 

The most probable reason, perhaps, for 
Mark's desertion is the common one — Dis- 
couragement. He may have been not a little 



Deserting the Post of Duty 51 

discouraged when he left Cyprus. The work 
there had been hard and the results would not 
seem to have been satisfactory. This band o£ 
missionaries had spent some months on the 
island, and what had they to show for all their 
sacrifice and toil? So far as appears from the 
records, they had only one convert as a visible 
result of their labors. Of course, that one was 
worth a great deal to the cause, being such a 
one as Sergius Paulus, the Governor of the 
island. But his soul was worth no more than 
the soul of the humblest peasant. And a 
young man like Mark might be supposed to 
look for numbers. To be sure there had been 
much good seed sown, which might be expected 
to spring up in the near future and bring forth 
a bountiful harvest. But young people are apt 
to be impatient and to look for immediate re- 
sults. Now, under these circumstances, it is 
easy to imagine how John Mark may have 
become discouraged. And upon reaching Asia 
and getting a glance at the field, it may well 
be that Mark concluded the prospects were 
even worse. He saw that the people of Asia 
were more degraded than the people of Cyprus. 
He foresaw fierce opposition to the truth, bit- 



52 John Mark 

ter persecution, and possible death. We can 
understand, then, how the heart of this young 
man may have sunk within him, and panic 
seized him, so that he was driven to desertion. 

It cannot be said that the dangers appre- 
hended by Mark were altogether imaginary. 
There were real hardships and dangers await- 
ing these soldiers of Christ in this Asiatic 
campaign. We know something of what Paul 
and Barnabas had to endure, how they were 
driven from one province to another, perse- 
cuted and stoned, some of their more relentless 
enemies pursuing them for a hundred miles 
and more. We remember that it was on this 
very journey that Paul, in a certain place, was 
stoned, dragged out of the city, and left for 
dead. 

But what shall we say of a young man who 
will get discouraged and give up, when older 
men, and men like Paul, suffering from phy- 
sical weakness, keep a good heart and face the 
worst dangers without flinching? Shall we 
excuse him because he is young and has been 
delicately brought up? Discouragements as 
great as those met with by Mark have been 
faced by men as young as he, and as delicately 



Deserting the Post of Duty 53 

reared, and that in a cause far less noble. Wit- 
ness the hardships endured by our soldiers, 
most of them young men, and many of them 
unused to roughing it, in foreign campaigns. 
There is no use of mincing matters, or calling 
things by any other than their true names. 
John Mark here plays the coward and the 
traitor. 

It is true these seem like harsh names to ap- 
ply to one who has heretofore shown such con- 
secration and enthusiasm in the Master's cause. 
But Mark had not previously been fully tested. 
He had not known himself, nor been revealed 
to others. No one of us knows himself, or is 
known, until the supreme test comes. We must 
come to our "Perga" before it can be known 
of what stuff, exactly, we are made. There 
may be in us more of the shirker, the traitor, 
the coward than we or others ever dreamed of. 
Says Phillips Brooks, in speaking of the in- 
habitants of ancient Meroz: "Cowardice we 
call the most contemptible of vices. It is the 
one whose imputation we most indignantly re- 
sent. To be called a coward would make the 
blood boil in the veins of any of us. But the 
vice is wonderfully common. Nay, we often 



54 J°hn Mark 

find ourselves wondering whether it is not uni- 
versal, whether we are not all cowards some- 
where in our nature." Physical cowards we 
may not be, but moral cowards we may easily 
be. Are we not often afraid to express our 
honest convictions? Do we not sometimes 
shirk the performance of an unpopular duty? 
Do we not often secretly in our hearts laud 
and praise bold, brave men, like Paul and Bar- 
nabas, while at the same time we leave them to 
fight alone the great moral battles of life? 
What better are we than John Mark ? 

But if we are not exactly cowards, are we 
not self-indulgent? and do we not often shirk 
a duty because it involves much sacrifice? 
John Mark had not yet reached the point 
where he was willing "to deny himself, and 
take up his cross daily and follow Christ." 
Well, is not that a point still in advance of 
most of us? It is amazing how little of the 
spirit of real self-sacrifice there is in the world ! 
Why, the common, ordinary work of the 
Church suffers more from "ease in Zion" than 
from any other cause. It is too much 
of a sacrifice for many to attend church 
twice on the Sabbath! And as for teach- 



Deserting the Post of Duty 55 

ing a class in the Sabbath-school, why, that 
is not to be thought of ! The people who are 
"at ease in Zion" are very scrupulous in keep- 
ing the Sabbath Day, so far as "in it thou shalt 
do no work." Negatively they are strict Sab- 
bath observers, but on the positive side of the 
fourth commandment they are great desecrators 
of the day. It is time members of our churches 
ceased bolstering up their selfish indulgence by 
quoting the fourth commandment. 

But if one class less than another may claim 
immunity from fatiguing exertion on the Sab- 
bath Day or any other day, it is the young and 
strong. Let others yield to the temptation to 
discouragement on account of hardships or 
risks to health and absent themselves from 
the post of duty, if they will, but let no young 
man or young woman in the enjoyment of 
abounding health shirk his or her duty through 
fear of a little exhausting of physical strength 
or weariness of brain. 

Life is a great training school, and the vari- 
ous duties of life are so many tests. Then let 
us breathe this prayer : 

"Lord, let me make this rule 
To think of life as school, 



56 John Mark 

And try my best 
To stand each test, 
And do my work, 
And nothing shirk." 

But it is possible we have not guessed aright 
in supposing that the reason why John Mark 
left Paul and Barnabas at Perga of Pamphylia 
was discouragement. Possibly his sudden de- 
parture can be accounted for on the theory of 
Insubordination. 

As we have inferred from the beginning, 
John Mark was serving his Master under the 
direction of Paul and Barnabas. As a young 
man his natural position would be one of subor- 
dination to these two disciples. And prior 
to their reaching Perga, there is no hint 
that Mark did not recognize his proper 
place and yield a glad obedience to every 
wish of his superiors. Then, why should 
it be thought possible that now he is moved 
by a spirit of rebellion to desert the 
disciples? Well, the suggestion comes from 
the fact that a change in the organiza- 
tion of the missionary company had occurred 
just a little while before, together with 
the further consideration that Paul, in a 



Deserting the Post of Duty $7 

dispute with Barnabas over the matter of 
Mark's desertion some time later, seems to 
show some personal feeling on the subject. 
The change in the organization of this mission- 
ary band, so far as there was any organization 
about it, consisted in the promotion of Paul to 
the leadership instead of Barnabas, who had 
undoubtedly been the leader from the begin- 
ning. This change is implied in the changed 
order of the names of the two disciples from 
about the time they left Cyprus. At first the 
order in which their names were mentioned 
was invariably Barnabas and Saul, whereas 
later the order was just as invariably Paul and 
Barnabas. A change in the apostle's name is 
also to be noted. Previously he was al- 
ways called Saul, but now he is always called 
Paul. Some have supposed that the apos- 
tle took this name from Sergius Paulus, 
whose conversion he was mainly instrumental 
in effecting. At any rate, the apostle gained 
great prestige from his successful encounter 
with Elymas, the sorcerer, and the consequent 
conversion of the Governor of the island. 
Barnabas would seem to have been greatly im- 
pressed with the apostle's ability to refute error 



58 John Mark 

and to convince the unbelieving. Paul himself 
may have come to have greater confidence in 
himself. And so it would quietly come about 
that Barnabas would naturally defer to Paul, 
and Paul would as naturally assume the leader- 
ship. 

Well, now, it is quite conceivable that John 
Mark did not find his position so comfortable 
under the new arrangement as he had under 
the old order. The apparent slight to his dear 
friend and relative, in the changed positions of 
Paul and Barnabas, may have prejudiced him 
somewhat against the apostle. Then, aside 
from any personal relations, Mark may have 
preferred a man like Barnabas to be at the head, 
rather than a man like Paul. Barnabas was an 
amiable man. His nature was generous and 
kindly. He had great patience and tolerance. 
Paul would seem to have been a man of nervous 
temperament. His was a striking, though per- 
haps not an attractive, personality. He had a 
consuming zeal for the cause of Christ. He had 
a high standard for himself and others. He 
was inclined to be severe in condemning faults, 
and, no doubt, would often speak sharply. 



Deserting the Post of Duty 59 

Withal, he was a man with a big heart and 
broad sympathies and as tender as a woman. 

It can be seen how Mark might have rebelled 
against such a zealous and exacting leader as 
Paul must have been. Likely he had not been 
used to being held to a very strict ac- 
count, and may have been petted and spoiled 
as a child. Anyhow, young people, as a rule, 
do not take very kindly to criticism. From the 
parent in the home down through the teacher 
in the schoolroom, the pastor in the church, the 
superintendent in the Sunday-school, the presi- 
dent in the society to the chairman of a com- 
mittee, criticism of conduct or work is resented 
by the average young person. But how un- 
reasonable is such resentment ! For, as the late 
Mr. Gladstone once said, "Censure and criti- 
cism never hurt anybody. If false, they cannot 
hurt you unless you are wanting in manly char- 
acter ; if true, they show a man his weak points, 
and forewarn him against failure and trouble.' ' 
If John Mark had only known it, he was pecu- 
liarly fortunate in having as his leader such a 
master- workman, so competent a critic ! What 
a training school for the Master's service was 



60 John Mark 

that little band of missionaries under the leader- 
ship of the great apostle to the Gentiles ! 

If our young people's organizations in the 
modern Church accomplish nothing more than 
the training of their members to "be in sub- 
jection to the powers that be, ,, they will have 
justified their right to exist and rewarded all 
the effort spent upon them. "Order is heaven's 
first law." And an apostle has handed down 
this injunction, "Let all things be done decently 
and in order." The peace and prosperity of 
our churches depend primarily upon the will- 
ing subjection of their members to properly 
constituted authorities. There is no such uni- 
versal need to-day among the churches of 
Christ as the need of peace. 

"Peace in our hearts, our evil thoughts assuaging, 
Peace in thy Church, where brothers are engaging, 
Peace, when the world its busy war is waging, 
Send us, O Saviour." 

But perhaps we have not yet diagnosed the 
case of John Mark correctly. Another hy- 
pothesis still is possible. It may be that Mark's 
desertion is fully explained on the theory of 
Irresolution. Never very strongly convinced, 
perhaps, of the duty or possibility of converting 



Deserting the Post of Duty 6 1 

the heathen, John Mark has concluded now, 
after some months of experienceand observation, 
either that the heathen are not worth saving or 
that they cannot be saved; and in an evil mo- 
ment of wavering faith he suddenly abandons 
all further attempts on his part. No doubt 
Mark did have some genuine zeal for the con- 
version of the heathen enkindled in his heart 
at the time he started for Antioch, and when he 
sailed with the disciples for Cyprus and the re- 
gions beyond. But this may well have been 
only a temporary impulse aroused by the glow- 
ing accounts of the work in Syria given by 
Paul and Barnabas, and the novelty and adven- 
turousness of the undertaking. We all know 
how easy it is to be aroused to enthusiasm in 
any cause by the enthusiasm of another, and 
then in a short time relapse into our former in- 
difference. 

There is no cause which demands such pro- 
found conviction of the desirability and prac- 
ticability of its successful prosecution as does 
the cause of the Christianization of the heathen 
world. Indeed, one must have a conviction 
of duty here wrought into his soul, not by the 
ordinary methods of producing convictions, but 



62 John Mark 

by a supernatural power. If the good resolu- 
tions of John Mark to help on the conversion 
of the heathen were the first to fail, they have 
not been the last. In this cause many have run 
well for awhile and then fallen down. Hun- 
dreds of others can never make up their minds 
at all that it is their duty even to contribute a 
mite toward sustaining foreign missions. 

Well, if we have discerned the true motive 
which actuated Mark in his leaving the foreign 
field, then, while we cannot excuse him, we can 
be somewhat lenient with him, seeing that it 
was only the first century of the Christian era. 
But for any Christian in this twentieth cen- 
tury to be indifferent to or opposed to foreign 
missions is utterly inexcusable. The attitude of 
Jesus towards the heathen world has been set- 
tled, and the practicability of converting to 
Christianity the heathen has been demonstrated. 
The century just closed has seen the triumph of 
missions to foreign lands. At the opening of the 
nineteenth century the whole Church was able 
to put into the entire field only one hundred and 
seventy missionaries. Now, the Church has 
eleven thousand missionaries in the field! 
Then, the whole amount the Church could raise 



Deserting the Post of Duty 63 

annually for missions abroad was only two 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, while now 
the aggregate gifts of Christians to foreign 
missions in a single year amounts to the mag- 
nificent sum of fifteen millions of dollars! A 
hundred years ago there were only fifty thou- 
sand converted heathen in all the world ; at the 
opening of the twentieth century there are no 
less than fifteen hundred thousand native con- 
verts ! 

But it may be that John Mark's faith in the 
final success of missions to the heathen did not 
waver, and that he only changed his mind as to 
the success of the efforts of Paul and Barnabas. 
Starting out with great confidence in the effi- 
ciency of these disciples and determination to 
assist them to his utmost, he now hesitates in 
his support of their efforts and finally turns 
against them, withdrawing all further aid. We 
have already noticed the comparative failure, 
apparently, of the labors of the disciples the 
first few months. The outlook in Asia would 
seem more hopeless. It is true that it is hard 
for us at this day to conceive of any one doubt- 
ing the fitness of men like Paul and Barnabas 
for the work of evangelizing heathen nations. 



64 John Mark 

But it would be very different with one contem- 
poraneous with the disciples and ignorant of 
their God-given powers. Mark would measure 
the disciples just as we would measure any or- 
dinary man living in our day. Putting ourselves 
in Mark's place, and remembering how hastily 
some people, especially some young people, 
form their judgments of men, we are able to 
understand how Mark may have felt, as he is 
here supposed to have felt, about Paul and 
Barnabas. 

Just what was lacking in the disciples Mark 
may not have been able to state. He would ac- 
knowledge that Barnabas was "a good man, 
full of the Holy Ghost, and of faith," and that 
Paul was a cultivated scholar and an able con- 
troversialist. But they were not orators, he 
would say, and lacked the power to sway great 
crowds, as Simon Peter did on the Day of 
Pentecost. In fact, John Mark was beginning 
to long for the stalwart fisherman of Galilee. 
He felt that it would be good to listen to one 
of his rousing sermons and witness the effect 
on one of his great congregations. 

But John Mark overlooks one important fact 
in thus questioning the fitness of Paul and Bar- 



Deserting the Post of Duty 65 

nabas for this mission abroad. He seems to 
forget that it is distinctly said that the Holy 
Ghost called Barnabas and Saul to this partic- 
ular work and sent them forth. "The Holy 
Ghost said," we read, "Separate me Barnabas 
and Saul for the work whereunto I have called 
them." "So they, being sent forth by the Holy 
Ghost," the record runs, "went down to Seleu- 
cia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus." 
Now, either John Mark or the Holy Ghost is 
mistaken as to the fitness of these two disci- 
ples for this foreign mission. The reader can 
decide which one would likely be the better 
authority. 

It is a delicate thing to criticise God's 
servants, and to pronounce upon their fit- 
ness for the work to which they seem called 
of God. In doing so, we may be found to be 
fighting against God. The egregious blunder 
of Mark in declaring Paul and Barnabas un- 
qualified for a foreign mission is evidenced by 
subsequent events in their work on this very 
journey in Asia, and ought to be a warning to 
all who presume to sit in judgment upon God's 
servants. Wonderful success, indeed, at- 
tended the labors of these brethren during the 



66 John Mark 

three or four years they spent in Asia, just fol- 
lowing Mark's desertion. Crowds flocked to 
their preaching. " Almost the whole city," we 
read in one instance, "came together to hear the 
Word of God." Hundreds of converts must have 
been made; just how many we have no means 
of knowing. In the journal kept we find en- 
trances made at the different places visited, like 
these: "Many believed;" "as many as were or- 
dained to eternal life believed;" "a great mul- 
titude, both of the Jews and also of the Greeks, 
believed." Then, besides conversions we are 
told that churches were organized, and "elders 
in every church" were ordained. Indeed, the 
record of this first journey and the two subse- 
quent journeys proclaim the apostle Paul the 
greatest missionary the Church has ever had, 
and is ever likely to have. 

The first few months out and the experience 
on the island of Cyprus may have seemed to 
cast doubt on the fitness of the disciples for the 
mission upon which they were sent. But such 
men are not to be judged on so short a trial or 
in so limited a field. The best of preachers 
may seem to fail for a time, and many a man 
who has failed utterly in one field has made a 



Deserting the Post of Duty 67 

great success in another. A particular field 
may be too narrow for one man, as a given field 
may be too wide for another. Paul may not 
have had scope for his abilities in the insular 
field of Cyprus, and needed the wider field of 
the continent of Asia to demonstrate his power. 
The weak point, then, in the character of 
John Mark may have been irresoluteness. He 
may have lacked depth of conviction of duty, 
loyal allegiance to his friends, unfaltering faith 
in the providence of God. He did not possess 
staying qualities. He wanted the grace of per- 
severance. Having put his hand to the plow, 
he looked back. This, if true, would be a seri- 
ous blemish in his character. Nowhere more 
than in the Church are needed mutual confi- 
dence and steadfast loyalty. Leaders especially 
must have the support of stanch friends. And 
at no time do we prize such friends and sup- 
porters more than when the work seems to lag 
and natural discouragements are met with. We 
never can show the depth of our devotion to a 
cause or to a person more truly than when re- 
verses occur. A very superficial person will 
seem to be a firm friend and supporter in time 
of great prosperity, but only the genuine will 



68 John Mark 

remain firm when adversity sets in. If there 
ever was a time when John Mark should have 
shown profound faith in the power of the Gos- 
pel and real friendship for the disciples, it was 
when that missionary band stood face to face 
with the mighty task of bringing the Gospel 
to the knowledge of the benighted heathen of 
Asia, discouraged, perhaps, and fully realizing 
their weakness for such an undertaking and the 
great dangers ahead. It was then the disciples 
needed comfort and all the assistance possible. 
After they had proven their power to succeed, 
under God, they would not feel so much their 
need of human assistance. Anybody will have 
faith in a man who has achieved success, but 
only a person of rare discernment or deep sym- 
pathy will believe in one who has not as yet 
won success. It is at the beginning of our 
careers or undertakings, more than later, that 
we need friends who believe in us and stand 
ready to aid us. 

Be loyal to your Church, to your society, to 
your Saviour, at all times, but especially "in 
the day of small things" and the hour of seem- 
ing declension : 

"True-hearted, whole-hearted, faithful and loyal, 
King of our lives by thy grace we will be." 



FOURTH PERIOD 

Reformation of Character — Disappointed 
Hopes— Church Dissensions — The Merit 
System 



IV. 



REFORMATION OF CHARACTER DISAPPOINTED 

HOPES CHURCH DISSENSIONS THE 

MERIT SYSTEM. 

Whatever may have been the reason for 
John Mark's desertion, the irrevocable act is 
done. John Mark has left Paul and Barnabas 
and returned home. The stigma of a deserter 
is upon him. The record hitherto so fair has 
received a blot. The name which was the 
synonym of honor has been disgraced. The 
confidence of the good and great has been for- 
feited. 

But what cannot be recalled can be repented 
of ; what cannot be undone can be forgiven. No 
blot can so stain our fair record that it cannot 
be washed out. The confidence of no honora- 
ble man can be so forfeited that it may never 
be regained. And it is to the everlasting credit 
of John Mark that he was not too proud to 
acknowledge his grievous mistake. 

That John Mark did make this acknowledg- 



72 John Mark 

ment, and did sincerely repent of the false step 
he took, becomes apparent from the fact that, 
after the return of the disciples from the first 
missionary journey, and when preparations 
were being made for the second, John Mark was 
ready and anxious to accompany the disciples 
again to Asia. We find this interesting record 
in the Acts : "And Barnabas determined to take 
with them John, whose surname was Mark." 

By what means John Mark was made to see 
his error and to repent we can only surmise. It 
is more than likely that Mary had some part in 
it. Glad as she was to look again upon the 
face of her son, on his return to Jerusalem after 
so long an absence, still she must have felt no 
little chagrin that her son had proven a de- 
serter. It must have been a bitter disappoint- 
ment to the mother, who naturally entertained 
great hopes for her son. Being a wise, as well 
as affectionate, mother, we can readily imagine 
how she may have administered a kindly, but 
earnest, rebuke to her son for his conduct. No 
doubt she endeavored to lead Mark to see his 
error and to repent of the wrong done the dis- 
ciples, as well as his sin against the blessed 
Master, whose he professed to be, and whom 



Reformation of Character 73 

he professed to serve. If there is any con- 
sideration of an earthly character that would 
beget genuine and deep sorrow for a wicked 
and dishonorable act, it surely would be the 
pain and humiliation thereby inflicted upon a 
loving mother! There is no earthly incentive 
to noble and upright conduct like the approval 
of a parent solicitous for our good name. 

Besides the influence of Mary in bringing 
about a reformation in John Mark, we can un- 
derstand how Mark may have been present at 
that great council in Jerusalem, held some time 
after Paul and Barnabas had returned from this 
first missionary journey, at which the disci- 
ples ''declared all things that God had done 
with them," and how he may have been affected 
by the reports he there heard from the lips of 
the disciples whom he had deserted. Hear- 
ing the story of their trials and triumphs in 
Asia, and seeing the honor bestowed upon Paul 
and Barnabas by the members of the council, 
John Mark would naturally feel the keenest re- 
morse at not having continued with the disci- 
ples. How base a coward, how recreant to 
duty, how uncharitable in judgment, how false 
in profession, how dishonoring to the cause, — 



74 John Mark 

these tormenting reflections must have been 
stirred in his heart as he sat in the council and 
listened to the story of the disciples whom he 
had betrayed. And as he contrasted his posi- 
tion of humiliation and shame with that of the 
disciples, rejoicing in the consciousness of duty 
well done and receiving the reward of their 
brethren's approval, and thought how he might 
have been sharing with Paul and Barnabas in 
the joys and honors of the hour, John Mark 
must have suffered the pangs of an accusing 
conscience and bitterly repented of his past 
folly. The righteous are bound to come to 
honor and to rejoice with exceeding great joy. 
In that day, if not before, remorse will seize all 
the unfaithful. 

But one other fact may have had a great deal 
to do also in revealing to John Mark the enor- 
mity of his sin of unfaithfulness, and in bring- 
ing him to repentance. That was the appar- 
ently enforced idleness in which John Mark 
was made to spend the time after his return 
from Asia to Jerusalem. There is absolutely 
no record of any service Mark rendered the 
Church during all those four or five years inter- 



Reformation of Character 75 

vening between his return and the departure of 
the disciples on the second missionary journey. 
These seem to have been wasted, blank years. 
And there is hardly any other discipline more 
severe than enforced idleness, when one is able 
and anxious to be employed, either from the 
necessity of earning or the love of work. John 
Mark could live without working, but he was 
no "gentleman of leisure." He loved to be 
engaged in the service of the Master, if he could 
only have his own choice of place and method 
of work. But such selfishness of service God 
sometimes repudiates. If his servants will not 
work where he places them, God will often take 
away all opportunity to work. There are idlers 
in all our churches who protest that they want 
to be doing something for Christ and the 
Church, but who want their choice, and abso- 
lutely refuse to do anything not perfectly con- 
genial. As long as that spirit remains, such 
members will, and ought to, continue in idle- 
ness. Such enforced idleness, when it brings 
forth its legitimate fruit, will expel all mean 
selfishness and prepare the idler for a truly con- 
secrated service. Those idle years would serve 



j6 John Mark 

to give John Mark an opportunity to meditate 
on his ways, to learn the lesson of obedience to 
God's will and to humble him. 

But whatever the influence, or influences, in 
working a needed reformation in Mark's re- 
ligious views and life, he profited by his disci- 
pline and was ready when the opportunity 
came to go back to his old place. 

But his discipline was not yet over, and he 
was doomed to disappointment. It was not so 
easy to get his old position back as he supposed. 
While Barnabas was willing to take Mark back, 
Paul had something to say about it. And so 
we find that the record continues, "But Paul 
thought it not good to take him with them, who 
departed from them from Pamphylia, and went 
not with them to the work." 

There was a difference of opinion between 
Barnabas and Paul in regard to the desirability 
of taking John Mark back. And as we 
shall presently see, it was a decided difference. 
Paul's opinion prevailed and John was re- 
jected. But why did Paul veto the reappoint- 
ment of Mark, now that Mark has repented of 
his past sin? Is it because he bears him any 
grudge or holds any spite against him? No, 



Reformation of Character jy 

nothing of the kind. Paul was too great a 
man to entertain such petty feelings. As al- 
ready intimated, there may well have been some 
considerations personal to himself. If it was 
dislike of Paul and unwillingness to submit to 
his authority that impelled Mark to desert the 
disciples, then Paul might still think that Mark 
would again make trouble for the same rea- 
sons. This is conceivable even on the theory 
that Mark had repented. Repentance or ref- 
ormation does not secure immediate sanctifica- 
tion. One may be sorry for a course of action 
and yet not be reconciled to the cause of that 
action. And one may think that he can bear 
with an objectionable person, and yet be mis- 
taken in this. 

Paul could forgive Mark, but he could not so 
soon trust him again. Mark had betrayed 
weakness in his character, and Paul was afraid 
he might again fail them. We may repent of 
a sin, but the weakness in our natures which 
led to the committal of that sin does not leave 
us at once, but remains for some time, if not for 
life, and exposes us to a repetition of our for- 
mer sins. It is only as we are fortified by the 
grace of God at our weak points that the lia- 



78 John Mark 

bility of repeated failure is lessened or removed. 
Paul desired for the difficult and important 
service in Asia not merely repentant men, but 
also strong men. He had not yet had proof 
that John Mark was any stronger than he was 
before, and so he firmly, but kindly, declined 
his offered service on this second journey. 

But Barnabas was willing to trust John 
Mark again! Yes, this amiable disciple was 
very anxious to take his relative with them on 
the second journey. It is just possible that 
their personal relationship had something to do 
in coming to the decision that Barnabas did. 
Then, Mary may have interceded with Barna- 
bas in behalf of her son. We can believe that 
Barnabas would be easily persuaded in such a 
matter. But aside from the influence of oth- 
ers or considerations of blood relationship, Bar- 
nabas may have felt that John Mark had 
learned such a lesson and been so changed that 
he would never repeat his past folly. And, 
therefore, he desired to have the help of one 
who had formerly given such acceptable ser- 
vice, as well as to give the young man a chance 
to redeem himself. 

It is no unusual thing for a man to fail once, 



Reformation of Character 79 

or even more times, and finally prove a strong 
and trustworthy servant of God. A man 
should, therefore, have more than one chance 
to prove his worth. And yet our sober judg- 
ment must justify Paul in his refusal to accept 
of Mark's services the second time. His re- 
fusal did not close, or was it intended to close, 
all doors to Mark. Paul knew there were other 
spheres in which Mark might serve his Master. 
He only judged him unfit for this particular 
mission upon which he and Barnabas had en- 
tered. Paul would grade the work of the 
Church, as the world grades secular labor, and 
he would select the men best suited for the vari- 
ous positions or grades. He would introduce 
the merit system into the service of the Church, 
just as men have introduced it in the service of 
the State. 

The standard of service in our churches must 
be lifted higher. The pulpit standard, gener- 
ally, has always been high, The trouble has 
been with the lay helpers. It is not because 
laymen of ability cannot be found in the 
churches. It is true there may not be in every 
church capable people enough to go around all 
the positions needing to be filled. But effi- 



80 John Mark 

cient workers can be trained up, and any 
church can have a sufficient supply. The dif- 
ficulty has been, not so much that capable 
members are unwilling to serve in the Sunday- 
school, on the Boards of the Church, or else- 
where, but that the best fitted have not been 
sought out or any effort made to prepare work- 
ers for the Church. The standard is low, and 
it is thought that anybody who expresses a 
willingness to serve is fit for any position in 
the Church. It is thought a dreadful thing to 
deny any one any appointment or position to 
which he may aspire. A superstition that God 
is calling the one who seeks an office or position 
in the Church to do the work of that position 
leads the appointing power to accept of the ser- 
vices of the first one that comes along. The 
calls of God, however, are generally to work 
we are unwilling at first to do. Moses was 
called of God to lead Israel out of Egypt, but 
he was unwilling at first and desired God to 
appoint some one else. It is safer to believe 
that the one whom the office seeks, rather than 
the one who seeks the office, is the called of 
God. 

The rejection of John Mark by Paul was, of 



Reformation of Character 81 

course, a severe disappointment to Mark, as 
well as to Barnabas. But John Mark had to 
learn that while the Lord may forgive our sins, 
and while men also may forgive us the wrongs 
we do them, yet we must continue for a time 
to bear the consequences, to a certain extent, of 
our sins. It is a mistaken idea of many that 
when we repent of our sins we are in all re- 
spects the same as we were before we sinned. 
Sin leaves a blemish on our reputation and 
a wound on our character that time only can 
remedy. Mark's reputation with Paul, at 
least, was seriously impaired. And this fact 
must have caused Mark great grief. Remem- 
bering the high position of the apostle and his 
wide influence in the Church, what prospect of 
future usefulness, of an honorable career, could 
Mark hope for? It would seem that every 
door of opportunity would be closed against 
him, as was now the privilege of laboring in 
Asia. 

But the evil consequences of John Mark's un- 
faithfulness do not fall upon him alone. It 
seldom happens that the sinner is the only suf- 
ferer from his sins. One of the consequences 
of our sin may be the furnishing of an occa- 



82 John Mark 

sion for others to sin. This was true in the 
present instance. We have seen the difference 
of opinion between Paul and Barnabas in re- 
gard to Mark, and observed that it was a de- 
cided difference. Luke, the sacred historian, 
frankly states, "And the contention was so 
sharp between them that they departed asunder 
one from the other." Think of it, these two 
old saints actually quarreling over the question 
of allowing John Mark to accompany them on 
this second missionary journey! And so bit- 
ter was the quarrel that, saints as they cer- 
tainly were and old friends as they had been, 
they separate, never to labor together again, if 
indeed to meet again on earth. Of course, it 
is not to be supposed that they parted as ene- 
mies, or that they harbored any ill-feelings tow- 
ards each other. But we would not excuse 
the disciples or lessen the scandal of their con- 
duct. They went beyond all bounds in neither 
yielding to the other. It is certainly true that 
God overruled for good this first serious dis- 
sension in the Church. But that does not ex- 
cuse the disciples or justify them in separating. 
Church dissensions not only greatly weaken the 
Church within, but also seriously weaken her 



Reformation of Character 83 

influence without. The Church put no more 
destructive weapon in the hands of her enemies 
than the numerous dissensions which disturb her 
peace and often rend her in twain. "Behold how 
great a matter a little fire kindleth." It is the 
little foxes that destroy the vineyard. We can- 
not be too careful to avoid individual acts of 
unfaithfulness. A single member's failure may 
involve a whole church or society in the most 
serious trouble. 

In the rejection of John Mark by Paul it 
must be observed that the apostle had a regard, 
not to any natural unfitness for the work in 
Asia, but solely to moral weakness. And any 
scheme for increasing the efficiency of Church 
workers must not disregard moral fitness. If 
any deficiency in a servant of God must be over- 
looked, let it not be moral deficiency. While 
it is true that, other things being equal, the 
man or woman of five talents will be the more 
efficient servant of the Church, yet the one-tal- 
ent Christian may do more effective work for 
Christ than the five-talent man or woman. God 
uses "the weak things of the world to confound 
the mighty, and the foolish things to confound 
the wise." And again, "It is not by might nor 



84 John Mark 

by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord." 
And yet it does not follow that "might" and 
"power" are superfluous adjuncts. The mean- 
ing of the quotation so often heard seems to be 
that "might" and "power," in themselves con- 
sidered, are not the really effective forces in the 
world, but that the secret of all true success is 
the Holy Spirit, working through "might" and 
"power" or not, just as He may choose. 

The supreme need of the Christian is to be 
filled with the Spirit. And the five-talent be- 
liever needs this infilling just as much as does 
the one-talent believer. But not all Spirit-filled 
Christians have equal effectiveness. More may 
be expected of the Spirit-filled five-talent man 
than of the Spirit-filled one-talent man. What- 
ever our talent may be, let us make this our con- 
stant prayer : 

"O fill me with thy fulness, Lord, 

Until my very heart o'erflow 
In kindling thought and glowing word, 
Thy love to tell, thy praise to sing." 



FIFTH PERIOD 

Inconspicuous Service — Emerging from 
Obscurity — Literary Monument — Final 



Verdict 



V. 



INCONSPICUOUS SERVICE — EMERGING FROM OB- 
SCURITY LITERARY MONUMENT ElNAL 

VERDICT. 

We left John Mark a rejected candidate for 
reappointment to a position on the mission to 
Asia. What next ? How does he take his dis- 
appointment? It is a very critical hour in 
Mark's life. Many a one has gone to pieces 
under just such circumstances. It is upon this 
rock that not a few have made shipwreck of 
their faith. We look, therefore, with deepest 
concern to see how John Mark will acquit him- 
self in this crisis in his life. Will he despair 
altogether of achieving any great work for the 
Master? Will his spirits be crushed and all 
holy ambition be driven out of his breast ? Will 
he be embittered against the Church and be- 
come cynical ? How will he feel towards Paul ? 
Will he take his rejection as a personal insult 
and vow revenge ? We have seen these results 
follow an experience like that through which 
John Mark has just passed. 



88 John Mark 

But let it be said to the honor of John Mark 
that he bore his disappointment like a man and 
a Christian. He did nothing rashly or fool- 
ishly. Failing to get what he wanted, he took 
the next best thing. He could not well insist 
on being appointed to a position he had once 
voluntarily relinquished. He was in a hum- 
ble frame of mind. He felt that any service, 
however obscure, was good enough for him. 
Down in his heart he felt that he had been 
treated just as he deserved. A man of that 
spirit is not going to be left long without some- 
thing to do. And he will accept whatever is 
given him to do. Accordingly, we read in 
Luke's journal, "And so Barnabas took Mark, 
and sailed unto Cyprus. And Paul chose Silas 
and departed." 

Barnabas sticks to his determination to take 
Mark, but he takes him under very different 
circumstances from what he hoped. And Mark 
goes on a foreign mission after all, but upon 
a much less important one than he had sought. 

Nothing more is known of this mission of 
Barnabas and Mark to Cyprus than is recorded 
above. The two disciples "sailed unto Cy- 
prus," and we infer from accounts of Mark 



Inconspicuous Service 89 

elsewhere that the vessel arrived in safety at the 
island. But there is absolutely no account of 
the work of the disciples on the island. We 
are justified in concluding that nothing of note 
was accomplished. There is a tradition that 
Barnabas suffered martyrdom on the island of 
Cyprus. Whether or not his death occurred 
while he and Mark were there together is not 
intimated in the tradition. The sacred narra- 
tive does not mention the name of Barnabas 
after the record of his departure with Mark. 
He is lost sight of altogether after that. And 
John Mark is not heard of again until after 
some ten or twelve years. 

These were not idle years with John Mark, 
but they were years of inconspicuous service. 
Mark did nothing all these years to attract at- 
tention to him. He was doing the best he 
could, no doubt, and was really living a very 
useful life. But he was not making history, 
particularly. 

However, very few out of the great host of 
Christian workers in any age are makers of 
history. The most of us labor on from day to 
day unobserved by the world about us. Our 
works are unrecorded by the pen of the his- 



90 John Mark 

torian. And yet we are makers of history, too, 
and our works are included in the records of 
the world's achievements. When the historian 
comes to sum up the progress of the Church 
or the nation, our contribution helps to make 
up the aggregate of the results. Our names 
only and the particular contributions we make 
to the whole are omitted. 

But if we perform no historical acts, achieve 
no fame, as the world counts fame, we make it 
possible for others to rise into eminence, and 
to hand down their names to future genera- 
tions. Just as the mountain rests on the plane 
and is lifted by the plane beneath into promi- 
nence, so the great man springs from the com- 
mon people and is given his prominence by the 
masses around him. A truly notable person 
is the product of several generations. Nothing 
of note may ever have been achieved by the 
great man's ancestors, and yet all that is great 
in him he has received from his ancestors. His- 
tory does not know the name of John Mark's 
father, and only incidentally mentions the name 
of Mary, and yet this obscure couple, by what 
they gave of themselves to their son, raised 
Mark to honor and fame. 



Inconspicuous Service 91 

A life of obscure service is often only pre- 
liminary to and preparatory for a life of exalted 
service. Most men of eminence have risen from 
obscurity and there received the training which 
brought them into notice. In the case of John 
Mark there may have been a providence in 
separating him from Paul and in leading him 
into the obscurity of those ten or a dozen years. 
Emerson says, "A new danger appears in the 
excess of influence of a great man. His at- \ 
tractions warp us from our place." John Mark 
was in danger of being dwarfed in his growth 
by the great oak that towered at his side. Mark, ' 
therefore, must be put upon his own responsi- 
bility in order to develop in him the power of 
origination and execution. He must learn self- 
reliance. His powers of thought and expres- 
sion must be brought out. He must acquire 
an individuality of his own, and grow into a 
manly independence. 

Now all this could only be secured by a sepa- 
ration from Paul and a willingness to retire 
into an obscure life, so long, at least, as the 
character of his work will permit him to dwell 
in obscurity. 

One of the benefits conferred upon the young 



92 John Mark 

people of our modern churches by their organ- 
izations is the opportunity thus given for self- 
development and training in Christian work. 
These organizations should be granted the larg- 
est freedom possible. Only thus can their 
members be made to feel their responsibility, 
and acquire the experience so much needed by 
every young Christian. 

But John Mark was not destined to remain 
hidden forever. He emerges from obscurity. 
Like his Master, he could not be hid. And 
where do we find him when next he writes his 
name on the pages of the Church's history? 
We find him at Rome, "the Eternal City." 
There is no notice taken by the historian Luke 
of his being at Rome, but we learn by implica- 
tion that he was there. 

Paul in two different letters written from 
Rome during his first imprisonment sends the 
salutations of "Marcus" and others, "my fel- 
low-laborers." Of course, Mark must have 
been at Rome at the time these epistles were 
written. And he was there as a "fellow-la- 
borer" of Paul. It does not appear whether 
Mark was summoned to Rome by the apostle 
or whether he himself decided to visit Paul at 



Inconspicuous Service 93 

Rome upon hearing that he had been carried 
a prisoner to that city. There is an interest- 
ing tradition that Barnabas made a dying re- 
quest of Mark that he would hunt up Paul and 
become reconciled to him, as well as convey 
to the apostle the assurance of his brotherly 
love. 

Although this is the first meeting between 
Paul and Mark since their separation a decade 
or more before, it does not appear to be the 
first knowledge the apostle has had of Mark. 
In one of the letters just referred to, namely, 
the letter to the Colossians, Paul seems to allude 
to a previous letter to the Colossians (now 
lost) written for the express purpose of 
recommending to them John Mark. The ap- 
parent allusion to a second letter is in these 
words: "Touching whom ye received com- 
mandments; if he (Mark) come to you, receive 
him." 

It would seem that John Mark, after the 
death of Barnabas, probably in company with 
one or more unnamed disciples, visited Asia 
Minor and labored there among the churches 
founded by Paul and Barnabas. But unfor- 
tunately, news of his desertion of Paul and Bar- 



94 J°hn Mark 

nabas, and the trouble which arose in conse- 
quence, had reached some of these churches. 
They were, therefore, naturally prejudiced 
against Mark and hesitated to receive him. 
This was particularly the case with the church 
at Colosse. These brethren, therefore, seem to 
have written to Paul in regard to Mark's rec- 
ord, and to have inquired as to what they ought 
to do about receiving him. Paul thereupon, 
by some means, probably by a letter which has 
been lost, sends "commandments" that, if Mark 
comes to them, to receive him. But, for some 
reason, John Mark does not appear to have 
visited Colosse until after he visited Rome, on 
the occasion of which visit the Epistle to the 
Colossians was written. After remaining at 
Rome for a part of Paul's two years' impris- 
onment, Mark made the contemplated visit to 
the church at Colosse, as well as to other 
churches in that region. But the next definite 
notice we have of John Mark finds him at 
Babylon, "that exceeding great city," the me- 
tropolis of Assyria, where the apostle Peter 
was then laboring. Writing from Babylon to 
the churches in Asia, Peter sends the saluta- 
tions of "Marcus, my son." This letter of Pe- 



Inconspicuous Service 95 

ter also proves that Mark had previously vis- 
ited the churches in Asia and was personally 
known to them. From Babylon, Mark goes 
back to Asia and revisits the churches there. 
While in Asia, Mark receives an invitation 
from Paul through Timothy to accompany the 
latter on a visit to him at Rome, where he is the 
second time confined a prisoner. Having urged 
Timothy to come to him, Paul adds: "Take 
Mark and bring him with thee, for he is useful 
to me for ministering." 

The most significant thing in this brief sketch 
of Mark's recent movements is the changed at- 
titude of Paul towards Mark. We see him 
recommending him to a church, welcoming him 
as a visitor, calling him his fellow-laborer, and 
finally sending for him, saying, "He is useful 
to me for ministering." 

How are we to explain this complete recon- 
ciliation of Paul and John Mark? What has 
changed Paul's opinion of Mark? Can we ac- 
count for it on the theory that Paul has grown 
more charitable with advancing years? No, 
for there does not appear to have been any lack 
of charity in his former opinion. Possibly, 
then, Paul had learned not to expect so much 



96 John Mark 

even of the followers of Christ, and had low- 
ered his standard. No, for he never expected 
the impossible of any man and never lowered 
his standard. The true explanation is found in 
the fact that John Mark had come up to Paul's 
standard, and the apostle having discovered 
the improvement in him, gladly gave Mark his 
confidence and eagerly availed himself of his 
services. It does great credit to the manliness 
of the apostle that he was willing to reverse 
his opinion of Mark as soon as Mark showed 
that he deserved a better opinion. But it re- 
flects still greater credit upon John Mark that 
he so changed his ways, and so faithfully 
wrought in the service of the Master as to jus- 
tify Paul's reversal of opinion. 

While it is nowhere so recorded, yet we can- 
not doubt that Mark went with Timothy to 
Rome. The hazard involved in a Christian 
entering Rome at this time of persecution would 
not deter Mark from making the journey, 
for he had outlived his former cowardice. Now 
he would have no more fear of entering Rome 
than had Luther of entering Worms, when he 
said, "Though there were as many devils in 
Worms as there are tiles on its roofs, still would 



umi 



Inconspicuous Service 97 

I enter." Then, this visit of Timothy and 
Mark was understood to be the last they would 
ever be permitted to make their beloved coun- 
selor and friend, as Paul had told them that 
"the time of his departure was nigh." How 
eager, therefore, would these two disciples be 
to have one more look into the familiar face, 
and to hear again the familiar voice ! And how 
anxious, too, they would be to minister to the 
last wants of the great apostle, and to make his 
last hours on earth as comfortable and peace- 
ful as possible ! But, alas ! doubt has been ex- 
pressed, and there is no proof to the contrary, 
as to whether Timothy and Mark arrived in 
Rome in time to see Paul before he suffered 
martyrdom. There is a tradition that they were 
captured and imprisoned in Rome, although 
Mark, at least, finally escaped. While all is 
uncertain in the life of John Mark after the 
death of Paul, say, a.d. 68 (Paul was undoubt- 
edly put to death under Nero, and Nero died 
in June, 68), yet he would appear to have lived 
a number of years subsequent to that event, and 
to have labored as an evangelist in different 
parts of the world. That he visited Egypt and 
preached there seems probable, whether we ac- 



98 John Mark 

cept or not the tradition that he founded the 
Church there and became its first bishop. 

One of the undoubted achievements of John 
Mark to which reference has not yet been 
made, and a work he seems to have performed 
after the death of Paul, was the compilation of 
a life of Jesus the Christ. This, indeed, is 
his chief monument. By this he is and ever 
will continue to be chiefly remembered. It re- 
flects the greatest glory on his character. To 
it more than to anything else in his life he 
owes the high place he occupies in the esteem 
of the world. And yet the other acts of his life 
already reviewed reveal the character of the 
man better, while this literary work attests es- 
pecially his intellectual abilities. It is a seal, 
however, upon his saintly character that the 
Holy Spirit chose him and inspired him to per- 
form this monumental work. 

We must not detract from the honor due 
Mark for the production of the second Gospel 
by bestowing too much credit upon Peter for 
the part he took in its production. For, how- 
ever much credit may justly be due the apostle, 
the production of the Gospel of Mark is essen- 
tially the work of Mark. Peter may have 



Inconspicuous Service 99 

prompted the undertaking of the work, and 
must have furnished many incidents and facts 
in the life of the Lord, but Mark himself had 
personal knowledge of much that is recorded, 
and others of the disciples, as Mary, could fur- 
nish a great deal of the material. But the plan 
of the book, the putting together of the mate- 
rial, the composition and distinguishing char- 
acteristics of the Gospel, must have been the 
original work of John Mark. 

The eminent success with which all this is 
done proves the great intellectual ability ac- 
quired by John Mark. For the vividness and 
picturesqueness of style, the catholic spirit and 
historic accuracy of the Gospel of Mark make 
it quite the most readable of all the Gospels, as 
well as the most valuable in many respects of 
them all. 

This last of the well-accredited performances 
in the life of John Mark furnishes a fitting close 
to the career of a most worthy saint. We have 
no sure account of the death of Mark, but no 
doubt the end came at last to him, whether at 
Alexandria or elsewhere, as it came to most of 
the conspicuous servants of God in the first cen- 
tury, at the martyr's stake. 

l.ofC. 



ioo John Mark 

In making a final estimate of John Mark's 
character, and in summing up the lessons of his 
life, a few things in general are worthy of our 
careful attention. Has the reader observed the 
perfect naturalness of everything in the prog- 
ress of Mark's life? He seems like a modern 
saint, and he is an example of the making of a 
saint in our day, more than in the age in which 
he lived. The trouble with most of the saints 
of the Bible is the exceptional experiences in 
their lives. Miracles are invoked in their be- 
half; supernatural power is given unto them; 
they hear voices, see visions and dream dreams. 
But so far as we are informed, nothing of all 
this happened in the life of John Mark. He 
had to depend wholly upon the method of God 
in dealing with souls in the common experiences 
of mankind. For this he is all the more an 
encouragement to aspiring souls in every age 
of the world. We of to-day feel that here is 
a man, weak like ourselves and tempted as we 
are, compelled to put forth every effort he is 
capable of if he would win and triumph at last 
over every obstacle by the grace given to every 
man who is making an honest fight to be true 



Inconspicuous Service 101 

and faithful. What John Mark became any 
other earnest soul can become. 

Beauty, as well as strength, adorned the char- 
acter of John Mark. It was not all resistance 
of evil, solemn performance of disagreeable 
duty, self-sacrifice and dogged perseverance. 
The typical saint used to be and still is in the 
minds of some a man whose black clothes hang 
loosely over an emaciated body, whose dis- 
heveled locks fall about a visage of pal- 
lor and sadness, and whose solemn convic- 
tion is that this world is a Siberia to 
which the human race is exiled on account of 
sin! But fortunately this mediaeval carica- 
ture of a saint is fast becoming an extinct type. 
Men are learning that a true saint is one upon 
whom rests "the beauty of the Lord our God." 
"God giveth us richly all things to enjoy," and 
strange that any one at all familiar with the 
teachings of the Saviour should ever have failed 
to learn the joyous nature of the Christian life. 
The character of John Mark does not repel, but 
attracts. You feel that here is a manly man, 
living out the idea of an apostle who said, 
"Quit yourselves like men." It would disabuse 
the minds of many of their erroneous ideas 



io2 John Mark 

of true religion if Christians reflected more the 
''beauty of holiness." The way of the trans- 
gressor is hard, but "the path of the righteous 
is as the shining light that shineth more and 
more unto the perfect day." Let us live, there- 
fore, so as to show, as we believe John Mark 
did, that 

"There's sunshine in my soul to-day, 

More glorious and bright 
Than glows in any earthly sky, 
For Jesus is my light." 

But the Christian life is not a holiday, if it 
is a happy life. The Christian must "work 
while it is day, for the night cometh when no 
man can work." John Mark will be remem- 
bered as "a worker for Jesus." And it was no 
easy berth he chose. Some think the character 
of a saint ill-adapted to the rough-and-tumble 
life of this world. But Mark proves not only 
that a saint can live the knock-about life of the 
world, but will come forth from the rough seas 
of this life all the more polished and beautiful 
for the experience, like the smooth and shining 
pebbles which are washed by the billows upon 
the ocean beach. 

John Mark was one of the heroes of faith. Is 



Inconspicuous Service 103 

it said there is nothing heroic in the character 
of a saint ? Why, it takes a hero to be a saint ; 
at least, it takes a hero to be much of a saint. 
Where are there to be found in the whole range 
of the world's history truer heroes than those 
whose names are given in the eleventh chapter 
of the Epistle to the Hebrews ? Religion makes 
its appeals to and fosters the very elements of 
heroism. Manliness, courage, honor, sacrifice, 
sympathy, love, hope of reward — these are the 
constituent elements of practical religion as 
well as of heroism. It is true that the Chris- 
tian religion counsels forbearance and discour- 
ages war. But there are heroes besides those 
who engage in personal encounter. Peace has 
its heroes no less than war. To forbear may 
require a greater hero than to retaliate, and to 
conquer self than to conquer an enemy. "He 
that ruleth his spirit is better than he that tak- 
eth a city." John Mark's heroism is seen in 
his self-mastery and self-making. 

John Mark impresses us as having been an 
eminently sane man. Only once did he lose 
his head, and that was in the early part of his 
career. Every man is apt to play the fool 
some time in his life, but no man need keep up 



104 John Mark 

the performance. Perfect sanity is a growth, 
and John Mark never, so far as we know, re- 
peated the folly of his youth. Religious faith 
has always been a prolific source of manifold 
absurdities. It is but a step from the sublime 
to the ridiculous, and the very sublimity of re- 
ligion is its temptation for ignorant, weak and 
unbalanced minds. 

"The worst of madmen is a saint run mad." 

The greatest enemy of religion is the relig- 
ious fanatic. But John Mark was no fanatic. 
There was nothing morbid about his faith. He 
was zealous, but not "without knowledge." He 
was a modest, sensible, level-headed man. At 
the same time, from the point of view of some 
people, John Mark would appear mad. Fes- 
tus thought Paul "mad," and the family of 
Jesus, in the beginning of his ministry, said, 
"He is beside himself." To the unbeliever faith 
is a species of insanity. To the easy-going, 
consistency of life is eccentricity. To the 
Greeks the preaching of the Gospel was "fool- 
ishness." But the only question to come before 
a commission on lunacy in such cases as those 
above would be the truth or falsity of Chris- 



Inconspicuous Service 105 

tianity, for if our religion be true, then the only 
sane person on earth is the consistent Christian. 
We have been looking now upon the finished 
product, and have been led to admire the 
wisdom, power and goodness of the Providence 
which made so great a saint of the Jerusalem 
lad. At various stages in the process, notably 
at two, we were puzzled, or would have been, 
had we not already known the sequel, to under- 
stand how anything saintly could be turned out 
of such a nature. John Mark himself and 
Paul, not to speak of Barnabas, who must have 
had his misgivings, and Mary, too, although 
a mother's faith is the last to waver, must have 
doubted if anything good could come out of a 
runaway and a castaway. But God sees the 
end from the beginning, and he has a plan for 
every life. We cannot see the purposes of God 
in leading, or suffering us to be led, in cer- 
tain ways. We are like "Mrs. Faber," one of 
George MacDonald's characters. "I wonder 
why God made us," says Mrs. Faber bitterly. 
"I am sure I don't know where was the use of 
making me." "Perhaps not much yet," replied 
Dorothy; "but, then, he hasn't made you; he 
hasn't done with you yet. He is making you 



106 John Mark 

now, and you don't like it." No, we don't like 
it! And because we don't like it we won't 
have it that our trials are our growing-pains. 
But if we cannot understand what an artist is 
going to produce after only a few strokes of 
the brush or chisel, why should we expect to 
understand the incomplete work of the great 
Artificer of our lives? "A Christian man's 
life," says Henry Ward Beecher, "is laid in the 
loom of time to a pattern which he does not see, 
but God does; and his heart is a shuttle. On 
one side of the loom is sorrow, and on the other 
is joy; and the shuttle, struck alternately by 
each, flies back and forth, carrying the thread, 
which is white or black as the pattern needs. 
And in the end, when God shall lift up the fin- 
ished garment and all its changing hues shall 
glance out, it will then appear that the deep 
and dark colors were as needful to beauty as the 
bright and high colors." 

We will not, then, lose hope in our own 
future or that of another in the hour of great- 
est weakness and wretchedness. God is able 
and willing to make our deepest humiliations 
minister to our highest exaltations. This is 
the great lesson of John Mark's life. It is the 



Inconspicuous Service 107 

lesson of the power of man, under God, to gain 
self-mastery and to overcome the world. It 
is a lesson on the method of God in the making 
of saints. And after our meditation thereon 
we can heartily say with Browning: 

"Then welcome each rebuff 
That turns earth's smoothness rough, 
Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand, but go ! 
Be our joys three-parts pain! 
Strive, and hold cheap the strain; 
Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never grudge the 
throe ! 

"So, take and use thy works; 
Amend what flaws may lurk, 

What strain o' the stuff, what warpings past the aim! 
My times be in thy hand ! 
Perfect the cup as planned! 

Let age approve of youth, and death complete the 
same." 



Scriptural References and Allusions to 
John Mark 

TEXT PAGE 

Mark 14 : 13 ; Luke 22 : 10 11 

Acts 12:12 12 

1 Peter 5 : 13 13 

Mark 14:51 22 

Col. 4:10 32 

Acts 12:25 32 

Acts 13:5 39 

Acts 13:13 47 

Acts 15 : 37 12 

Acts 15:38 , 76 

Acts 15 : 39 88 

Col. 4 : 10 ; Philemon 24 9 2 

Col. 4 : 10 93 

1 Peter 5 : 13 94 

2 Tim. 4: 11 95 



Index of Subjects 



Age at which to join church, 13, 15. 
Ancestors, 90. 
Antioch, 32, 34, 39. 
Asia, 47, si. 
Attendance, church, 15. 

Babcock, Rev. Maltbie D., quoted, 55, 56. 

Babylon, 94. 

Barnabas, 32, 52, 57, 58, 63, 64, 65, 76, 89. 

Beauty of character, 101. 

Beecher, Henry Ward, quoted, 106. 

Bethany, 11 

Betrayal, the, 22. 

Blank in life of Mark, 89. 

Brooks, Phillips, quoted, 14, 53, 54. 

Browning, Robert, quoted, 107. 

Character-study, 3. 
Characters of Bible, 5, 6. 
Children, and the church, 13, 14. 
Christians, first so-called, 37, 38. 
Church, members of, 27. 
Civilization, aggressive, 41. 
Commercialism, 21. 
Community of goods, 9, 10. 
Conscience, what it is, 49, 5a 
Council, Jerusalem, 73. 
Cowardice, 53, 54, 96. 
Crisis, 40, 87. 
Criticism, 59, 65. 
Cyprus, 7, 39. 



iio John Mark 

Death of Mark, 99. 
Denominations, 38. 
Desertion, Mark's, 47. 
Disappointments, 76. 
Discouragements, 50, 52. 
Dissensions, church, 82, 83. 

Elijah, 6. 

Elymas, 57. 

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, quoted, 43, 91. 

Environment, 20. 

Evangelism, modern, 18, 24. 

Evangelists, 42. 

Excuses, 49. 

Filled with the Spirit, 84. 
"Forward!" 18. 

Genius, 6. 

Gladstone, quoted, 59. 
Gospel of Mark, 98, 99. 

Heredity, 20. 
Heroes, idealizing, 6. 
Heroes, of faith, 103. 
History, makers of, 89, 90. 
Holland, J. G., quoted, 40. 
Holy Spirit, 50, 65, 84. 
Home, leaving, 34, 35, 36. 

Idleness, discipline of, 74, 75. 

Individuality, 91. 

"Institutional Church," 17. 

Insubordination, 56, 60. 

Interview, pastor and new members, 28-31. 

Irresolution, 60, 67. 



Index of Subjects 1 1 1 

Jesus, arrest of, 22. 
Journeys, missionary, 39. 

Kingdom of God, 36. 

Letter, lost, 94. 
Loyalty, 67, 68. 
Luther, 96. 

MacDonald, George, quoted, 105. 

Mark, parents of, 7; birthplace, 7, 8; earliest reference 
to, 8; first mention of, 11; converted, 12; at arrest 
of Jesus, 22, 23 ; goes to Antioch, 32 ; goes to Cyprus, 
39; employment of, 41-43; deserts, 47; repents, 
71, 72; rejected, 76; accompanies Barnabas, 88; 
commended by Paul, 93; death of, 99. 

Merit system, 79, 80. 

Money, love of, 21. 

Moses, 80. 

Nineteenth century and missions, 62, 63. 

Obscurity, 91. 

Paul, 32, 52, 57, 58, 59, 63, 64, 65, 76, 97- 

Paulus, Sergius, 51, 57. 

Peace, 60. 

Persecution, 23, 24. 

Perseverance, 67. 

Peter, 11, 64, 94. 

Pledge, the, 31. 

Pope, Alexander, quoted, 3, 7, 104. 

Property, Individual ownership, 10. 



1 1 2 John Mark 

Quarrel, first church, 82. 

Religion, definition, 14. 
Rehoboam, 19. 
Repentance, 72. 
Reputation, 81. 
Revolution, 36, 37, 38. 
Rome, 92, 94, 95, 96. 

Sacrifice, 54, 55. 

Saint, a modern, 100, 101. 

Saneness, 103, 104. 

Scandal, 82. 

School, life a, 55. 

Service, inconspicuous, 89. 

Skepticism, 21. 

Sleeping-cars, 27, 28, 31. 

Sociables, church, 17. 

Socialism, 9, 10. 

Society, Young People's, 18, 44, 60, 92. 

Stephen, 11. 

Sunshine, 102. 

Times, signs of, 18, 36. 
Timothy, 13, 20, 95-97. 

Unbelief, 21. 
Unchurched, the, 15, 16. 

Verdict, final, 100. 
Visions, 100. 

Workingmen, 15. 
Worship, 29, 30. 



Index of Subjects 1 1 3 



Young men, 15, 19. 
Young people, 18, 28, 43. 
Young people progressive, 37. 

Zeal, missionary, 61. 
Zion, ease in, 54. 



THE END. 



The King's Stewards. 

By Rey. Dr. LOUIS ALBERT BANKS. 

Cloth bound, Gilt top. 315 pp. $1.25. With a photogravure Por- 
trait of Dr. Banks. 

t>xeee noticed. 

THE WATCHWORD. — We take pleasure in commending this 
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This superbly gotten up volume is published and will be mailed, 
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Talks Between Times, 

By MARGARET E. SANGSTER. 

ismo, 15* pages, Cloth. 75 Cents, Postpaid. 



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N. Y. OBSERVER.— Beautiful and helpful talks from a gifted 
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RELIGIOUS TELESCOPE.— The name of the gifted author of 
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AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

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SEP 12 1903 



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